A Zero Star Dragon Ball
by DestroyerO'Mangoes
Summary: Louise summons a dragon that has experience being summoned. Mostly taking place within Familiar of Zero.
1. Chapter 1

**This is an Author's Note. I do not own The Familiar of Zero or Dragon Ball Z. This chapter and all subsequent chapters are not endorsed by the franchises' respective owners. Please support the official releases before reading this.**

 **This story contains suggestive themes and humor, there will however be nothing more explicit than what is featured in The Familiar of Zero. Additionally, I am bad at keeping characters true to their canon characterizations, (though sometimes I intentionally change them) and keeping them in their fanon characterizations. I don't mind reviewers pointing it out when characterization is inconsistent, but either an explanation of why or a suggestion on how to fix this is preferred. All errant and missing commas must be purged. Otherwise, reader who found this story hidden here, enjoy.**

Chapter 1: Uncareful Wishes

It was a day written about many times before, the day of the springtime familiar summoning. As has happened before in the many universes that fractalized from this point in space and time, Louise was panicking from having claimed she would summon a dragon, a beast only the best mages could bring into their service, when she hadn't been able to properly cast a spell in her life. If she couldn't summon something unarguably magnificent, she'd never hear the end of it. Worse, if she failed to summon anything, then she would be ejected from her school for being incapable of magic. The only way she made it through her first year was near spotless theoretical marks compensating for her practical results.

'But,' she thought donning her Noble's Mantle. 'If I do summon something amazing, Kirche and her friends will never be able to call me Zero again.' Granted, this may be a bit of an optimistic prediction, but it was extremely cathartic just imagining. Plus, after many nights of research, reading, and revision, Louise had finally made an invocation tailored to summon only the best familiar to her side.

Exiting the entrance hall of the main tower, she could see her peers gathering before Professor Colbert, who was busy looking up occasionally while checking a list of second year students. Thus, all the positive energy from any reassuring thoughts Louise had a moment ago was promptly picked up in the breeze and waved goodbye to her.

Maybe if she stood near the back the other students would forget she was supposed to be here. Unfortunately, Louise was not by any metric the last to assemble for today's ritual. A large, jiggly aura approaching from behind her told her as much. Keeping her eyes locked in the opposite direction, and her spine involuntarily straight, Louise looked for anyone to feign conversation with until the demon passed. Noticing her only option was Guiche de Grammont, Louise made the mistake of hesitating.

"Oh, good morning Zero, fancy you having the gall to show up for the ritual today."

Swallowing, Louise turned to face the Zerbst having no excuse to deny conversation. As expected, Tabitha, the inanimate mage from Gallia, emulated being attached to Kirche by the hip. Bringing to bare a false front of confidence, Louise responded, "Zerbst, whatever made you think I wouldn't be here? I'm going to summon my familiar today after all."

"Oh really?" Kirche began closing in on the Valliere's space. "What did you say yesterday? 'You'll see Kirche! I'm going to summon a dragon or maybe a manticore!' It'll be precious seeing you try." Her shrill impersonation of Louise grated on Louise's nerves like a metal rake on a chalkboard.

"You shouldn't be acting so pompous, you harlot. My familiar will make yours look like a worthless bug in comparison." Louise retorted while stepping back out of reach as a couple of students began to look on.

"Sure, familiars do represent their masters. You'll probably summon a large puff of smoke." Kirche fanned her fingers across her mouth giggling. "It'll probably be blown away in the wind before you can finish the ritual."

Seeing more students beginning to watch her dispute with Kirche, Louise decided she needed to act quickly to save face. "Well, I w-"

"Attention! Summoners-to-be! It seems we have everyone assembled now. So please follow me out to the field to begin the rituals. For those of you who haven't had me as an instructor before, you will refer to me as Professor Colbert. No dallying! We have a big group this year."

With that Kirche Von Anhalt Zerbst smirked and led Tabitha and a few of her other friends and lovers away towards the summoning field. Louise let out a breath and a mental doppelgänger of her collapsed to the ground with relief. If only she could do that right now. Not ready to reengage her rival, Louise calmly stayed in the back as the assembled students made it to the field and the summonings began.

As the last two students aside from her were performing their summoning rituals, Louise decided she would settle for any familiar. Damn beating Zerbst's rare salamander or Tabitha's untoppable dragon, it would be a win to perform a spell correctly for the first time and prove she was a mage. Supposedly, it was impossible to fail the Summon Servant ritual, so today should be guaranteed to be her best day in her life. However, no mage had ever had a track record as bad as hers. Besides, even the best mages could end up with something small like a mouse, so yes, anything would do.

"Is that everyone now?" Colbert asked as he looked at the large ink stain marring his list. There had to be some way to improve upon quills and ink pots.

Kirche jumped in place and waved at the Professor. Louise bit her lip, 'Please leave me be, I can speak up for myself'. "Louise hasn't made her attempt yet! She still has to summon her dragon! Right Louise?"

'WHY!?' Why did Kirche have to bring that up now? All the other students were giggling now, "The Zero summoning a dragon? Really?"

"Miss Valliere, you're the last one up then. Please begin the ritual."

Puffing up, Louise took a step towards the summoning circle. "No way she's actually going to try?" Another step, fear seemed to seed itself in the students. As Louise closed her distance to the summoning array she could see the students back away at least 10 meters a person. Tabitha was dragging a mildly protesting Kirche behind an elevated section of ground for cover. Only Professor Colbert remained anywhere near the circle. 'But why? Shouldn't they be getting closer to gloat over me should I fail. My explosions blow up in my face and I only got a serious injury when I tried a slightly powerful spell last year... But the Summon Servant ritual spell is one of the most powerful magic spells in existence.'

'Brimir, protect me. If this explodes in my face there won't be a me anymore! And I like me!'

Sweat started to form on her brow as she pulled out her wand. Colbert announced while eyeing the retreating students that Louise may begin the ritual. Taking in a deep breath, Louise started her chant, wand directed at the array, and arm beginning to tremble in trepidation.

"My familiar that exists somewhere in this vast universe, heed my call! By the power of the pentagon of the five elements may your beautiful, divine, wise and powerful form serve me!" The field became dim as the sky turned black as night, and an audible murmur of panic rose from students now hastily erecting defenses. 'This isn't good. This isn't supposed to happen.'

Now with her whole body shaking, fortunately unseen by her classmates, and with images of this portion of Tristain exploding in her mind, Louise continued. "Grant my wish," and lightning arched along the array. 'No, no, no. Don't explode!' "And appear before me as I exclaim," The earth now rumbled underfoot, Colbert prepared to cast a spell, and Louise could feel magical power gushing from the array which worryingly lacked a green portal for her familiar to come through. 'This is definitely going to explode.'

"My familiar, I summon you forth!"

Then there was silence, though the sky remained black, all other signs of disaster ceased, and some students peered past their ad hoc fortifications and barriers with relief. Then seven streaks of light came down and caused an explosion of dirt and dust to rain down on the unfortunate summoner. Confused, dazed, and petrified with fear and anticipation Louise sat in the cloud of dust unable to see the summoning array that was at her feet a moment ago, certain she had just failed.

Recomposing himself, Colbert moved to dispel the dust cloud and check to see if Louise was injured. He failed to do this as a bright light launched the dust away in a gale of wind and a dragon rushed into the sky unendingly from out of nowhere. The dragon glowed with emerald armored scales and a yellow belly, it's long serpentine body large enough to comfortably swallow a merchant's airship whole. Two antlers like ancient trees and hair like tall grasses adorned it like a mane, and ruby eyes gazed down to where its body continued to emanate from seven crystal orbs. It's body now looped aerially above the academies outer walls and continued to form a slowly expanding coil suspended nearly half a mile in the air.

Then the dragon spoke, with a voice that shook all that heard it, "I am the Eternal Dragon Shenron, you who hath summoned me, speak now so that I might grant you two wishes."

At this Louise's fear began to melt away into realization. 'I summoned a _Dragon_!?' Standing up, she saw Colbert staring up at her summon and remembered she was not done with the ritual. 'How am I supposed to kiss him?' Seeing his body emanating from a crater where the summoning array was, meaning she must have been launched a little way from the impact, Louise slid down into the pit where the dragon seemed to spontaneously generate out of the light of seven orange spheres.

'I hope those aren't my familiar's... Special Bits.' Raising her wand up high in excitement Louise chanted, "Pentagon of the five elements, give this worthy creature your blessing, and bind him to me!" Louise brought down her wand towards the orbs emanating the dragon, and on contact there was an explosion.

The youngest of the Vallieres was now flying in an arch through the air, covered in dirt, soot, and minor burns to her clothing when time slowed and she noticed she was less falling to the ground and more gliding over it at high speed. Then her foot caught the dirt.

Several meters of field were plowed by Louise's left shoulder, hip, and knee as her momentum dragged her through the earth. Her mantle was now torn off, her left sleeve and shirt were torn to ribbons that littered the ground, her stocking and shoe had abandoned her, and her whole left side was marred with grass stains and friction burns excepting her lower hip and upper thigh which were protected by her thick skirt. As she gingerly stood again her blasted dragon growled and said, "Your binding magic has no power over me. Now summoner, speak so that I might grant your wish."

Wincing, Louise stood with her weight on her right foot. She could see Professor Colbert slowly sidestepping his way towards her, never facing away from the dragon with his staff ready and face set in a grimace. Behind her she could see movement as students backed into the forest moving from cover to cover with the exception of Tabitha and Kirche. 'It wants to grant my wish, huh? That sounds obedient, so maybe the dragon didn't blow me up on purpose?' Louise glared up to the dragon she summoned. "Ok, I want you to let me make you my familiar! You hear me?!"

"Do not waste my time further, you must wish for me to use my power. Now speak, 'I wish...' "

"Oh, ok." A literal wish then. 'This must be the strangest summoning there ever was.' Across the multiverse thousands of Saitos and other far superior summons sneezed in synchronization, and caused three near identical universes to collapse into one. "Dragon, I wish you would complete the familiar binding ritual!"

Colbert turned to Louise in alarm at her sloppy phrasing. Wish granting entities rely on specifics! She should know this!

Shenron's eyes glowed a brilliant red, and Louise felt a new pain on her left hand. Looking down, she saw a bright light inscribing a rune onto her hand. In both horror and agony, Louise wailed out forcing herself not to grab at her already damaged hand. Eyes returning to a duller shade of red, Shenron spoke, "Your wish has been granted, what is your second and final wish?"

'Second wish? Like the first one worked! How did I end up with the familiar runes!' Louise seethed with rage at that thought and steadied herself. Colbert, now about ten meters away, yelled, "Be careful Louise, wish granting beings take what you wish for extremely literally!" 'So, if I don't word this like a legal contract, then things might backfire?' More importantly, what was she going to wish for? Being able to cast a proper spell would be nice. She could wish for her magic to work! But what if it already did? Her entire left side ached too much to be thinking hard right now, and much to Colbert's chagrin, she rushed into her second wish.

"Dragon, for my second wish, I wish to successfully cast spells of any element. It can be fire, water, earth, or wind, any one of those will do. I just want to be able to cast normal spells!" A tear streaked down her face at the thought of being able to do some proper magic for once in her life. As the dragon's eyes glowed once more, four patches of crackling energy manifested above the dragon. Bolts of energy lashed out between them and regret washed over Louise settling in her stomach as the thought of including the word 'painlessly' drifted into her mind.

Facepalming, Colbert set up a wind shield to protect Louise from what appeared to be an impending lightning barrage. The shield did nothing.

In rapid succession, Louise was pierced by four beams of divine light. First, a flaming orange streak hit her forehead pulling her head back. Second, a solid navy-blue line struck her lips knocking her off balance. Thirdly, a cyan ray pierced her chest striking her downwards. Finally, a golden bolt bludgeoned her in the abdomen, slamming her into the earth once more. "Your wish has been granted." Her teacher could only watch helplessly.

Stiff and unmoving on the ground Louise looked up and listened to the dragon's parting words. "Until the next summoning, where by my name you will summon me forth." Shenron's body lit up with golden light, rushed up into the heavens, and with a flick of his tail scattered the dragon balls across Halkeginia before vanishing. As the sky returned to a state of daylight, Louise thought, 'The next summoning?' before passing out. Colbert rushed over to take her battered body straight to the infirmary.


	2. Chapter 2

**You can all thank DragonNargus for this chapter coming out earlier than planned. If I can keep a backlog of chapters, I will be uploading Mondays (my time), and whenever a review target is hit, DragonNargus hit the current target of 5. If I see someone spamming reviews, I will only count them as one.**

 **For those expecting a dragon ball hunt, that will be a big arc in this story, but don't expect any hunting in the first (insert number) chapters. I have no idea honestly. Lastly, as someone asked, Shenron was less fairy god mother and more genie with the wish delivery because Louise had the gall to try to enslave The Eternal Dragon as her slave/familiar, hope that makes that clear. PS: I need to work on making more concise ANs.**

Chapter 2: Less Pain, Please!

Lying in a soft bed, Louise could feel her whole left side ache. 'Pain. Painful to move, don't move.' Louise opened her eyes and extended her senses past her injured bodies' aching. To her left she could see Professor Colbert drawing in a sketchbook, with several tomes laying on a table behind him. "Colbert-sensei, where am I and what are you doing right now?"

Colbert jolted up to see Louise's half smiling half grimacing face stare at him. "Louise! Are you feeling alright? After you were knocked out during the summoning ritual yesterday, I brought you here to the infirmary to recover. I'm glad to see you awake this soon after what happened."

Checking the room while only moving her head, Louise could confirm the somewhat familiar shapes and textures of the school's infirmary. As she tried to respond to her professor, she paused with a numbness stretching across her face. Working past it she said, "My left side keeps aching and my face feels numb, but I think I'll live. Why is my face numb sensei?"

"Oh? You might not remember, but your 'familiar' hit you in the face twice with some strange magic. Both points of impact fortunately are only heavily bruised. I was worried something more fatal might have struck you." Colbert got up and walked over to get a hand mirror from a desk nearby. "If you want, you can take a look at the damage, but it isn't a pretty sight by any stretch."

That explained why she couldn't feel most of her head. She recalled being knocked down by a series of bright lights as well. "I'll take a look, if you would please hand me the mirror."

Receiving the mirror from Colbert, Louise blanched as much as her face was capable. Her forehead was purple with tinges of yellow extending to her eyebrows, and her lips and surrounding jaw were splotched rash red and the same purple as her forehead. How was she able to speak still? Gently setting the mirror on her face, Louise mumbled, "M'm id uh us."

"Don't worry Louise, now that you're awake, we can administer a rapid restoration potion. It'll mainly bring down the bruising by drawing on your stamina, so we'll get you something you can eat before the potion puts you back under Morpheus' spell." That was a plus she guessed, but Louise was starting to form questions for Colbert on what happened to her, and more importantly what would happen to her. "Speaking of food, I'll get one of the maids to bring you some soup." Colbert proceeded to get up and briskly move for the door.

"Sensei!" Louise raised her voice as far as she felt safe, her chest aching too now. Most pressing question first, "Did I pass the summoning ritual? Will I be able to keep learning at the academy?" Technically two questions, but Louise would worry about tertiary technicalities like those later.

Colbert stopped and turned about in the door frame, "Louise, you will continue to be a student here, don't worry about any of that from now onwards. However, what exactly happened with your summoning is still a mystery. The contraction of the familiar seems to have been bungled in some way, or that's the leading theory Osmond and I have right now. Additionally, it seems no one knows where your familiar is, which is very disconcerting."

"Wait, how can you not know where my familiar went? He's a giant dragon! Surely someone would report seeing him fly past right?" Louise fought the urge to sit up during her muted exclamation.

"I'm afraid the most anyone knows about your familiar is the sudden night it brought with it during your summoning. Commoners from every village we contacted and even some Nobles thought Brimir had returned to end them for their misdeeds. Otherwise, no castle dwarfing dragons have been spotted."

"That's strange, thank you professor." Louise let out a sigh and set her head down into the pillow again. Colbert gave a soft smile and closed the door behind him.

Louise dozed for a bit and went over what happened during the ritual yesterday in her mind. In doing this, she remembered something gut wrenching. Tweaking her miraculously uninjured left wrist, she could see a rune branded to the back of her hand. 'That can't possibly be good. Does this mean the _dragon_ made **ME** _its_ familiar!' Louise started to rage at this thought but stopped when her left flank bit her with retribution for moving. 'When will this nightmare end?' Looking to where Colbert was when she awoke, she saw a pile of tomes. The only title visible to her was Rutherford's Complete Guide to Familiar Runes.

That colored a lot of what Colbert was doing when she woke up. 'Trying to make sense of my rune, huh?' As much as she trusted Colbert, that might not be good for her long-term position as a noble. Her rune could entail very negative things about her summoning relative to her status as a noble. She needed to know what her rune meant fast, and before Colbert accidentally leaked anything negative about it. Hopefully, she could have him keep it secret, at least until she knew more about it.

Thinking of the rune on her hand, Louise took a closer look at it. The most prominent detail was a dragon resembling the one she summoned making a circle as if to bite his own tail. That was a very bad sign in Louise's book. 'Did it **BRAND** me as his!' Within the circle were seven stars arranged in a hexagon, one star in the middle of the others. Louise did not know what that could represent. Lastly, a thin scribble like a lightning bolt appeared to be coming out of the dragon's mouth.

Generally, Louise could tell nothing from her familiar rune, so under normal circumstances she would've picked up the books next to her and learned how to decipher her rune. The disablement of her left and front sides managed to stop her though.

Using her right arm to feel around, she discovered the bruising along her sternum. Trailing down she could feel the massive tender area spreading across her whole belly. Sensing a pattern, she continued feeling out downward when the door flew open.

"Miss Valliere, I have brought you your soup!" A maid barged in and looked down at Louise before swiftly turning around. "M-My apologies, I d-didn't know that you were already f-feeling so... lively today!" The servant set down the soup nearby without turning around, and hastily stepped out closing the door behind her.

Louise looked to her hand and added even more red to her face with a blush. 'Did she think? Brimir, no, don't let her think that! I'm a pure Noblewoman; this is something only Zerbst would do!' In her embarrassment, Louise couldn't bring herself to explain the misunderstanding to the maid.

After what must've been five long moments, Louise calmed down enough to think again. Not wanting to interact with the maid again, she reached for the soup. It wasn't even close to being in her comfortable reach. Then her stomach growled at her. 'Traitor! You know we'd have to call the maid back here to eat the soup.' Her stomach growled louder in return. 'Damn you, making me do this!' She took a steadying breath to calm her nerves. "Maid, if you would be so kind, I'm having trouble moving normally. I'd greatly appreciate it if you came in here and lent me your hand."

Outside the door, Siesta froze in horror. 'Lend her my hand?! Is she really suggesting that I?' Siesta steeled herself, knowing what might be in store for her with Count Mott moving to purchase her, she decided a little practice might make the transition smoother. Blushing more than her uncle or cousin could ever make her, she reentered the infirmary.

Seeing the maid return blushing as much as she was, Louise prepared to settle the incident from earlier with her. The maid came to her bedside and bowed as Louise started, "Thank you for coming back. About earlier..." Siesta pulled down the sheets covering Louise to her feet. "If you could just forget this whole thing ever happened..." The maid was now grabbing the hem of Louise's white hospital gown. "Hold on, what do you think you're doing?!" Siesta stopped pulling her gown as it passed her mid-thigh.

"I'm sorry, but didn't you ask me to," she gulped, " 'lend you a hand?' " Louise paused as she frantically tried to see what went wrong in the last minute.

"No, no, no, no, no! Help eating the soup you brought me! You left it out of my reach..." Hearing this, Siesta instantly fixed the mess she made of Louise's bed, patting it in place as if to say, 'this didn't happen, just our imaginations.'

Siesta then bowed to Louise before groveling on the floor saying, "Please don't punish me! I promise it was just a misunderstanding! I'll do anything to make up for what I've done today."

Seeing her rank as a noble somehow sped along the process of settling this, Louise took her opportunity, "Promise to never speak of any of this to anyone, and I will forget what you just tried to do, and you won't be punished. Understand?" Siesta stood and nodded with a relieved breath. "Now, if you would help me eat. I'm starving and can't move to get the soup you brought for me."

'Soup?' Siesta thought before looking at the soup she brought up. To Louise's partial understanding, she face-palmed. 'That's what she meant a moment ago.' Taking the bowl, Siesta set it on a tray next to Louise's right hand.

Finally getting the bowl in reach, Louise tried to bring a spoonful of soup to her mouth, only to spill it on her bed. 'Why? Why me, Brimir?' Being confined to a prone position, Louise was unable to keep her spoon parallel to the floor, a wonderful quirk of her human anatomy.

"Maid? What is your name?"

"Siesta, Miss."

"Siesta? Could you... Spoon feed me? I can't seem to pull off eating on my own."

Avoiding eye contact as much as possible, Siesta fed Louise her soup. It was an awkward experience for both of them. After that was finished, Louise thanked Siesta for putting up with all the nonsense that transpired, and Siesta replied, "It's all right, just doing my job. As you asked, I won't tell a soul about 'that'." Louise relaxed visibly at that. "Additionally, I'll be by tonight to change your sheets discreetly, as you may have 'spilled some soup' on them."

Looking at the tiny soup stain she made when trying to feed herself earlier, Louise smiled, "I don't think that is entirely necessary tonight, but I'd appreciate that." Siesta bowed and left the room at that.

Two slaps echoed from a courtyard outside not a moment later. 'At least I'm not the only one having a bad day.' Louise thought frowning, misfortune had been her mistress for more than a full day and night now.

Knocking came from the door before Colbert returned to the infirmary. "Louise? I have that restoration potion ready for you when you are."

Louise wasn't ready to go back to sleep yet though. "Professor? Can I ask a favor from you? And maybe a few more questions too?"

"Certainly Louise. What can I do for you?"

"Could you keep the familiar rune on my hand a secret?"

Colbert paused to consider that for a heartbeat, "Yes, I see how that might be misconstrued by the uninformed. However, the headmaster, his secretary Miss Longueville, and our resident healer Miss Geauri also know already. I'm sure you can trust us all to keep this under wraps for now, Louise?" 'Though letting 'Miss Longueville' know was a complete oversight on our part.'

Louise felt the weight of this secret lift off her shoulders and hang there for now. "So, earlier today, you were researching my familiar rune? Have you learned anything yet?"

"I'm afraid I haven't, I was just starting to make a sketch of your rune when you came to. If you don't mind, I'll be finishing that after you've had your medicine, so I can personally start researching it outside the infirmary."

"Thank you, Professor, I think I'm ready now."

Colbert uncapped a vial with a pink solution containing red and blue chunks suspended in it and put it in Louise's good palm. "I hope to see you better soon Louise." Louise took down the potion in a single gulp and was out like a candle in a gale.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Reputations Dragging Through the Mud

Kirche was conflicted. She didn't know what to think about Louise the Zero since yesterday. It had put her in a sour mood that stopped her from drawing in boys like moths to a flame. Worse, she didn't want her first few days with Flame to be sullied with this sour mood, it would set a bad first impression of her on her familiar. For this reason, she was sorting things out in her head while sipping tea next to the accommodating Tabitha while petting her salamander. 'That innuendo didn't even stir up anything in me.'

So, what did she feel about the Valliere now? At the front was pity and a bit of guilt. The summoning was Louise's first 'successful' spell, and instead of literally blowing up in her face, it blew up figuratively. She ended up in the infirmary, and her familiar up and flew off. Worse, if she and Tabitha hadn't been so cowardly, they could've protected her from Shenron's strange lightning attack, and Louise might not be injured so badly. Speaking of Shenron, Louise's familiar came with a name, so she couldn't even name it.

The next biggest feeling was probably intimidation. Louise said she would summon a dragon, and boy did she deliver. It's said that the familiar resembles the mage, so what did that say about Louise? Perhaps she just had some mental barrier causing her to only make explosions? If she got past that, how long would it be until she surpassed people like her and Tabitha? The fact she took her teasing so seriously made that a worrying thought.

Deeper still was her empathy for Louise. She seemed like she was in a bad spot now and could use something positive after yesterday. Maybe she could give Louise a light tease, then play along when she inevitably fired back, let her get a few free jabs in to show they could be friends. With Germania and Tristain merging soon with the Emperor's wedding to Princess Henrietta, Louise and her family would probably have to bury the hatchet and act like neighbors.

'Maybe I could teach her to appreciate innuendos for the divine comedy they are?'

Two slaps echoed across the courtyard as Guiche was knocked prone.

'He really needs to step up his game. Can't even handle two lovers at once? That's plain sad.'

Returning to her thoughts Kirche decided to take Tabitha and visit Louise when she was up again to make her feel better. The only issue was finding out the instant Louise was awake enough to have visitors. Professor Colbert said Louise might be out for the rest of the week.

Then Tabitha looked over to her as Sylphid landed next to her. Looking to the Void Tower, Tabitha said, "Awake." 'So, Louise is already up again? Maybe a visit tonight or tomorrow morning? Whenever we can sneak in there I guess.'

* * *

When Louise woke up again the pink light of the primary moon washed into the room. At the door, Siesta was near silently bringing a pile of linens into the room, but saw Louise staring at her. "Oh, I'm sorry, did I wake you?"

Louise wasn't sure if that was possible with Siesta's mouse like stealth. "Maybe? I didn't hear anything to wake me up though." Siesta smiled at that and set down the linen.

"This'll be easier then. I'll move you to another bed for a moment while I change the sheets. You're good enough to be moved now right?"

Louise wriggled a little, that caused her left side to flare up a tad, but it wasn't as intolerable as earlier today. "I'll be fine. Proceed."

Siesta then gingerly removed Louise's cover before picking her up like a bride and setting her on a neighboring bed. While Siesta got to work changing the sheets, Louise dozed for a bit. About half way through Siesta asked, "Are you hungry Miss Valliere? You haven't had much lately, right?"

Feeling her stomach already making preparations for another war march, Louise responded, "Yes, does it have to be soup again? I'd like something more solid this time. If I can eat that?" Louise felt for bruising on her lips and then reached for the mirror from earlier, which was annoyingly out of reach again. Siesta was already handing her the mirror and reached to get a candle. After a spark, Louise could see that the blemishes to her face had significantly retreated to minor discolorations patterning her face. Less angry reds and deep purples now, but more variations of her skin tone. "At least I don't look like a painter's dabbing pad anymore. I think I'm up to eating something proper now, if you would kindly get me something Siesta."

Before Siesta could acknowledge her, knocking was heard on the door. "Little Louise! Are you awake in there? I'd like to have a chat with you." Kirche's voice came in as a death knell for Louise.

Using her good arm to quickly grab Siesta and pull her closer, Louise let out a faint hiss, "Don't let her in here, I don't want her messing around with me today. Tell her she can't come in because I'm asleep or something." Siesta nodded in solemn understanding, stiffened up to her full height and answered the door.

"I'm sorry, but Louise is sleeping right now. If you could please be quiet and return to your dorms, her rest mustn't be interrupted."

Kirche deflated and Tabitha lightly tapped the back of the Zerbst's head with her staff, "Morning's better." Tabitha then levitated Kirche as they headed back, the floating girl protesting the indignity of being dragged along.

Turning back to Louise, Siesta gave her a thumbs up before taking the old bedding out with her. Louise relaxed for the umpteenth time that day, and mumbled, "Thank you Siesta."

It wasn't long before Siesta returned with a small sandwich platter for Louise and finished remaking her bed. Despite her normal appetite, Louise was able to down all six sandwiches to Siesta's amazement. As Siesta moved Louise back into her bed, Louise spoke up, "Will she be back tomorrow?" Siesta nodded. "In that case, how hard would it be to get a lock on that damnable door?"

Siesta looked at the lockless door. Why didn't it have a lock? "I think I can get someone to come up and handle that early tomorrow morning. Colbert has had this new lock he wanted to test out apparently, I'm sure he'll be happy to see it in action here."

Louise beamed a smile up to Siesta hearing that, "Thank you again, you really do too much for me Siesta. Oh! Also, compliments to the chef for those sandwiches."

Siesta smirked and puffed out her already 'puffed' chest. "The pleasure is all mine then. Head chef Marteau has already turned in for the night to be ready to make breakfast tomorrow morning." Grabbing the platter, Siesta twirled out of the room.

Louise's last thoughts before settling in for the night were, 'I need to get myself a maid like Siesta.'

\- Earlier in the halls -

Siesta passed up Kirche and Tabitha carrying a pile of sheets.

Seeing the same maid from earlier, Kirche asked her, "What are you doing? I thought you were taking care of poor little Louise?"

"Oh, but I am. Miss Valliere needs her sheets changed after she 'spilled some soup' on them." Siesta mentally chastised herself for making her deception into an innuendo.

'Spilled some soup?' Why did she say it like that? Was that a slip of the tongue? Smirking, Kirche thought, 'Simple way to find out discreetly.' "Oh, has Louise been having a 'stressful' day. I could only imagine."

Snapping back into the conversation Siesta replied, "Yes actually, she seems to have had a very stressful time of it lately. Please remember to knock before entering like you did tonight."

Kirche's face flushed for a second. 'Who would expect that from Louise the Prude.' She smirked and whispered, "Oh my." to Tabitha, who pieced a few things together a little belatedly. Her cheeks were a little rosier that night, and Louise sneezed back in the infirmary.

* * *

Setting the sheets to dry now finished, Siesta went to inform Robert, a handyman, that he would need to install a new lock.

"Robert, are you in here at this hour?"

"Yes, I had one last thing to do for the mad professor tonight."

"I'm sorry then, but I need you to install a lock on the infirmary by tomorrow morning."

"The infirmary? That's an odd request, but as the Nobles demand, right?"

"Yes, the earlier you could have it done tomorrow, the better."

"Well, I haven't been assigned any repairs tomorrow, so I guess I'll do it tonight. Somehow, nothing's been damaged for the past few days in a row. Anyhow, the only spare lock I have was that strange one the mad professor just finished tinkering with yesterday. Would that be okay with whoever requested the repair?"

"Yes, thank you very much Robert."

"Oh, and if you see Colbert before I'm up tomorrow, tell him Osmond stopped by to look at some of his projects. He said something about reimbursing him for materials."

With that done Siesta turned in for the night.

* * *

Meanwhile, a certain Zerbst was knocking on the door of the resident potion maker, Montmorency de Montmorency.

"Kirche? What are you doing here? I'm trying to get to sleep." Looking her over, Kirche could tell that was a lie.

Ignoring that, Kirche pressed on, "I came to buy some of your 'Scent Reducing Perfume,' if it's not too much trouble."

Montmorency stared back at Zerbst, trying to judge her. "Didn't I give you some last week? That should last you at least a month if you've been using it right."

"It's not for me, I'm planning to give it as a get-well gift to Louise."

"To **Louise**!" Montmorency realized she'd shouted a bit too loudly, and over corrected back into a whisper. "Is this some kind of practical joke? Louise would kill you for the mere implication. She doesn't even need this kind of perfume, you know how she is."

Kirche set a finger on her dimple at this. "I happen to know that she would benefit from this perfume. So long as I write a note to explain the perfume to her so I'm not in the room when she reads it, she won't blow up on me, and won't risk bringing it up in public."

"Hold on, are you saying the Zero... Loves her zero very much?" Kirche nodded in reply. Montmorency and Kirche couldn't help but giggle at this together.

Then they heard footsteps stop next to them. They really should've been having this conversation behind closed doors.

"Montmorency, my love, I've come with a gift of apology, but, pardon my intrusion. Isn't it poor form to be laughing at Miss Valliere as she is bedridden with injury?" Guiche, holding a box of chocolates and a bouquet of wild flowers, raised an eyebrow.

Unwittingly, Guiche had put the two ladies in a pickle. They couldn't expose Louise's habit to Guiche, but the alternative was to admit to bad mouthing Louise while she was already suffering enough in the infirmary. Luckily, as a noblewoman, Montmorency knew a third secret option. The art of diversion and distraction.

"Oh, Guiche! You put all that together for me. How thoughtful. I was just lending Kirche some perfume!" Kirche now had a full glass of perfume in her hand, and Monmon hissed to her, "You owe me two gold pieces, leave while I cover our flub." Kirche bowed and was gone. "Come in Guiche, we have a long talk ahead of us that's been a long time in coming."

Forgetting any mention of Louise, Guiche wilted for a moment. He straightened back up though, he was fortunately generously prepared for this inevitable moment tonight. Little did he know Montmorency would be taking this easy on him as to help him forget anything he wasn't supposed to hear, and everything he did.


	4. Chapter 4

**I should have waited until tomorrow to post this, instead I'll come back later with slight edits as I'm not 100% satisfied with it yet, but I did say Mondays and I'm a man of my word.**

 **As of 10/23/18 this was edited.**

Chapter 4: A Breezy Building and a Bare Bum

Another morning waking up in the infirmary meant another morning where Louise was getting better. Louise was sitting up for the first time since she summoned her dragon, and she wanted to start making forward progress on something. The easiest place to start was figuring out the rune on her hand's meaning. Just because Colbert-sensei had a head start didn't mean she couldn't help.

She could still see the tomes Colbert left behind on the table nearby, pages melding together ever imperceptibly from having been left closed for a time. But first, she wanted to get a better look at her rune. Same circular dragon biting its own tail, same seven stars in the middle, but now that she could bring her hand to her face with only mild discomfort she could see letters of proper runic script inscribed there. The tiny runes, thinner than a hairline fracture in glass, phased in and out of view with the subtlest movements.

Writing them down she translated them. "Gandalfr, huh? Now I just need to see if there's something close to that in one of these books." 'If it is in one of these books. Colbert probably has a fuller set for his research.' "This should only take a day or two. Huzzah..."

So, Louise set about skimming each book for possible leads on her rune. If this didn't work, she might have to read them all cover to cover to be sure they didn't have anything pertinent.

Halfway through her skim of the first book, Louise heard knocking at her door. "Louise? Are you awake? I brought a... 'Get Well Present' for you." That was Kirche, she seemed very insistent on coming to torment her in the infirmary for some reason. Louise looked at the door and saw a new doorknob in place of the old one. 'The lock must be installed! Yes! But is it locked right now?' Another knock from the Zerbst. 'No time to find out, either way pretending to be asleep will deter her from bothering me.' So, Louise stayed silent and gently laid her face into her pillow so that she could still see the door.

Outside Kirche rattled the door, angry jiggling of multiple varieties having no effect. "What's going on? Since when was there a lock on the infirmary door!" 'Foiled again! Don't you worry Louise, I'll get in there and cheer you up!' "I guess she's still asleep."

Tabitha, never looking away from her book in this ordeal, simply said, "Try later?"

Kirche made an about face and declared, "Don't fret Louise, I'll be back for you later." She had been such a good friend to Louise lately.

Inside, Louise was thanking Brimir for the lock keeping her worst enemy safely away from her. She finished skimming the books and made note of the important sections that might help her when she noticed it was getting a bit late for breakfast. 'Reading on an empty stomach might make me miss something.' So, she decided to head out and get something to eat. She felt good enough to take a gentle stroll comfortably now and wanted to take advantage of the much better day she was already having.

Step one was unlocking the door. She didn't see a deadbolt or latch, not even a keyhole on her side. Thoughtlessly trying to twist the knob first, she heard a clunk from the door and it opened. 'Must be some feature of the professor's lock.' Inspecting the handle further, Louise could see a little button hiding behind the knob. Pressing the button made three spikes come out where an internal deadbolt would normally be fitted. Closing the door behind her on her way out of the infirmary, Louise thought, 'What a wonderful lock, you need a key to get in from the outside, but someone inside can unlock it just by turning the handle.' Despite saving her from Kirche moments ago, Louise would grow to hate that lock.

With a sudden tearing attacking from the ether, Louise found herself on the floor tripping on her own clothes. Jolting back up, she could see her flimsy, white, medical gown stuck in the door jam, threads and ribbons of it flowing down like dust in a pond. Then she felt a draft, a terrible, cold, caressing draft. Though she felt like a mummy in all her bandages, they only wrapped about her left arm and leg, and her chest and abdomen. As her skirt protected her hip and upper thigh from the dragon's rage, those regions received no such bandaging. As far as most people at her school were concerned she was totally naked. As much as she'd contest that she'd also have to be topless to be totally nude, Louise now had bigger concerns. She had managed to lock herself out of the infirmary, and her gown was unreasonably torn to shreds for getting stuck in a lock. Chilling dread settled in her stomach like a bucket of ice.

Panicking that someone, especially Kirche who would return on her next free period, would see her she lunged, was reminded of her injuries by her screaming side, then limped, to the first hiding place she could find. 'OW! I still can't move quickly! This is very, very bad.' Luckily, the Void Tower was the least active place on campus, and Louise slid into a storage room safely.

The room she found herself in was full of barrels, and she managed to find a secluded place to hide and think among them. 'Okay, safe from total humiliation for the moment. What do I do? I could stay here until either Siesta or Miss Geauri come by and help me. I can trust them both not to laugh and keep this secret. But I really don't want Siesta to see me like this after our last fiasco, and I haven't seen Miss Geauri at all since I've been injured, where has she been? Either way, someone is going to see my shredded gown sooner or later and come looking for me. I can't risk hiding it, or someone might sneak up on me when I'm trying to get it out of the door. That leaves four options, find the key to get back in, get some clothes, retrieve my wand and blast that lock into tiny pieces, or hide until someone leaves the infirmary door unlocked. None of those sound great.

'First off, I don't know where the key is, and if it's on a person I won't be getting it anyway without giving them an eyeful. Similar problem with getting my wand, Colbert-sensei hasn't told me where it is, and I haven't asked. With my luck it's in a drawer in the infirmary. If I hide and wait for someone to unlock the door, odds are someone will find my gown first and won't be able to unlock it anyway. In that case I'll have to endure the whole school looking for me for what could be hours. That leaves the worst option, getting a change of clothes. The only clothes I know about aside from my own I'd have to steal from one of the other girls. I don't want to get caught red handed taking someone's clothes, so I'll have to get to my dorm. I definitely won't cross the courtyard to get to the girls' dormitories, which would be the most direct route. That leaves the walkways in the walls to take me two towers over, and then I must slip into my room, which just had to be at the top floor, undetected. On top of all that, I can't run or hide in tight spots without injuring myself, need to keep an eye out for the headmaster's familiar, and do this before Kirche's free to check on me between classes.' Had Louise been a statistician, she wouldn't have bothered calculating the odds, they clearly were rapidly approaching zero.

Louise was a humiliated noblewoman walking. What would her Mother think? 'She'd probably spank me until my bum matched my face in hue.'

Refocusing, she peeked out of the storage room. Louise was able to see the start of the long corridor between the first two towers. Sticking to the walls, she made her way over, stray pebbles coming off the stone floor to eat at her bare feet. Further along, the breeze picked up forcing Louise to further fold in on herself lest it further molest her as she approached the corridor. Unfortunately, the inner wall was peppered with windows, and Louise was in no shape to crouch for a long distance. Peering through the first window, she checked the courtyard facing her.

It seemed that most of the students were in class. Only a few first-year girls were in the nearest courtyard, and they were busy playing some game. If she draped her hair over her right side she could hide her naked shoulder, they wouldn't think twice of her walking by. The real problem was the small mass of third year students in front of the Girls' Dormitory Tower having a pissing contest over who had the showiest spells. That could develop into a problem.

Walking along the outer track of the corridor, Louise continued to see no one as she approached the second tower without a gaze being leveled at her. Classes were in session, and she could hear a few teachers lecturing. At any moment the bell could ring out for the changing of classes. Going straight through the tower was faster but left no safe direction to run or place to hide. However, the longer paths provided only minutely better protection.

Choosing to maintain possible escape routes, Louise started to walk the ring of the tower. As she made it to the final corridor before the girls' dormitories, the bell let out its knell. Louise had seconds to safely find a hiding spot.

Moving quickly, she spotted an extended gun-port at the half way point along the corridor. She slipped in and slid up against the corner connected to the corridor. If anyone looked in now, she'd be trapped. She shivered in the roaming wind coming from the hole in the outer wall as she could here students walking and talking from both ends of the halls. 'Brimir, I beg of your mercy today.' The crowd's passing rolled thunderously by in Louise's ears. This had been a terrible decision, if the masses crawling by noticed her, she'd be forced to stand as she endured their ridicule or push through a thousand hands belonging to the perverted school boys, and the girls who loved to, and would know just how to, torment her.

The passing of students continued, and dried out, not one seeing her. Peeking once again, she saw two more students blocking the entrance to the dormitories. Guiche and Montmorency, they seemed to have already patched things up again, and Guiche was faithfully spending his full spare time with her. 'Of all the times that fop can choose to be a dignified noble, he had to choose now. Of course.' Now Louise was trapped for the next hour unless they moved soon. Worst of all, if those two had a free hour, so did Kirche.

So, Louise leaned against the cold stonewall as the couple fussed over each other. Her bottom freezing as the wall dug its icy fingers in gleefully, and her breath short as she tried not to make a noise. Then the couple started walking down the corridor, and Louise tensed up, knowing exactly where a young couple would go to be intimate. Somewhere secluded, somewhere never visited, exactly where she was hiding. Just before Louise called out to Montmorency to warn her she was there, and hope she'd give her mercy, she heard a pitter patter of a mouse. Today would be the day that for the first time in his life, Old Osmond would prevent the world from seeing a fair maiden's tooshie.

Seeing the vile creature approach her, Monmon let out a shriek, "Don't look up my skirt you perverted mouse!" Drawing on his newfound reserves of chivalry, Guiche aided his girl in attempting to blast the mouse to bits and proceeded to start a witch hunt for the mouse that retreated into the Girls' Dormitories.

Saved, but unable to make forward progress with the commotion, Louise was forced to remain in place. Then cart wheels were heard clattering along the wooden floor boards. Daring to look out once more, Louise could see Siesta pushing a full cart of dirty laundry out of the dorms. This could be her only chance to minimize the humiliation of her ordeal!

Taking in a deep breath, Louise let out a stage whisper, "Siesta! Over here, but please avert your eyes!"

Setting her cart just outside the gun-port, Siesta called back, "Louise? Why are you out of the infirmary? And why can't I look?"

She might make it out of this situation unseen somehow. "I went out to get something to eat, but I had a bit of a wardrobe malfunction. Well, more of a wardrobe deletion."

Siesta's eyes widened at this. 'Oh, the poor girl.' "Don't worry, I'll stand watch. You get in the hamper, and I'll take you back to the infirmary."

If she wasn't still injured Louise would've swan dived into the cart. Instead, she had to pull one leg up after the other, the last thing she wanted right now. Digging into the soiled laundry, Louise was warm and out of sight. Boy, did the laundry reek, but she nevertheless cried tears of joy.

Revealing she had one of the two keys to the door, Siesta dropped Louise off at the infirmary, and locked the door so no one could sneak in on her. Then she disposed of the shredded gown and brought back a fresh change of clothes and a hot meal for Louise.

It may sound ridiculous to others, but Louise thought as she put on a fresh uniform, 'I owe Siesta a life debt for this.'

* * *

"Where's that damn rat!"

"Mouse."

"I know! I won't have time to visit Louise if we don't find this mouse now!"

"Too late."

"Argh! I'll skin that rat with a _lange messer_ for this!"


	5. Chapter 5

**Finally getting off the humiliate Louise train with this chapter, so Guest should be happy about that. This chapter breaks the 10k word mark and _progresses the plot_ , not that the previous chapters didn't have their reasons for being written. At this rate the hunt for the dragonballs will start before chapter 20. *sad kazoo noise here*. I will be looking at chapter 4 soon, no promises how soon, to adjust a few things that could be improved so if an update occurs later this week, that'll probably be why. Enjoy this chapter, or leave a critical review to speed along the garbage.**

Chapter 5: Fragmenting Foes

Having found her wand hiding behind the infirmary bed's headboard, Louise was out for vengeance. That damn lock that made her suffer earlier today was going to feel the full wrath of one of her misfiring spells. Which one should she use though? How about a metal cracking incantation? That way, even after the explosion, the intended result would be roughly the same. Leveling her wand at the doorknob from her maximum accurate range, she chanted, "Inter, medi, frango, mettalum!"

A surge of power traveled up from her gut and down her arm, and a beam of energy shot out at the doorknob. The metal glowed white as a spiderweb of lines covered it. Louise took cover behind her bed, then she heard clings of metal hitting the floor. And nothing else happened. Then more nothing happened. Louise peaked over her bed, and her jaw hit the mattress an inch below it. Tiny shards of metal sat on the floor, and there was a handmade hole in the door where the lock used to be.

Her spell **worked**.

'What the hell did I do different today?' She thought as she stared at the hundreds of metal shards sitting at the foot of the door. 'Look at the shards. This level of fragmentation shouldn't be possible for a first-time caster. Most people are lucky to split it in half on their first try, and I can't count how many pieces this is in!'

She limped over to a drawer nearby and pulled out a small sack. Gently, Louise swept up the metal fragments into the sack and attached it to her belt. 'These shards will be a family heirloom passed down for generations!' Now to find Colbert-sensei and ask him how she pulled this off.

Colbert-sensei was not far, not at all. In fact, he was on the other side of the slowly opening door flanked by Miss Geauri, and the handyman who installed the lock. Louise was too high on casting her first spell to infer anything from what she had just done.

Colbert immediately cried out, "My project!" Throwing his hands to his head.

Robert the handyman shrugged and walked off to get something, and the school healer shrugged, "I see that fixed itself on its own."

"Louise? Why did you do that? I put two weeks into the construction of that prototype alone!"

On her part Louise tried to put words together, but her simultaneous stuttering, mumbling, and slack jaw just made repeated noises vaguely resembling syllables.

Colbert sighed, adjusted his glasses, and grabbed Louise's good hand. "I'm afraid we'll have to have you talk with the headmaster about damaging school property outside of scheduled training."

Louise's sputtering now took on a worried tone as she tried to speak like someone dignified again.

As she was led off Miss Geauri yelled back, "Don't worry, it's against protocol to have locks on the only exit to the infirmary. It's a serious fire hazard. You saved someone a bit of hassle dismantling the lock."

Louise swallowed as she and Colbert turned the corner and into the courtyard. Seeing Louise stop babbling, Colbert let go of her hand as she followed him at a calm pace. "It's good to see you up and walking again, but you shouldn't be practicing your magic without supervision with how your spells normally go. You need to finish resting Miss Valliere."

Miss Valliere could only let out a stream of buts before clamping her mouth shut and taking a deep breath.

Colbert continued, "I'm mostly confused as to why you were targeting the infirmary door, and practicing when you should be resting, or perhaps researching 'your familiar.' "

Louise finally calmed down enough to speak properly and enunciate her words as a noble should when they started up the stairs of the central tower. "The lock had it coming, it's already given me enough trouble today. But that's not important..."

Colbert cut her off there. "The lock 'had it coming'? What did it ever do to you?" Louise couldn't answer that honestly. "So, you just wanted something for target practice I take it? You're normally such a model student Louise, I'm disappointed."

That stung Louise into silence. Colbert-sensei was one of two people at the academy that she knew believed in her. The other was Osmond, but he could just be going senile. Which made being brought to his office right now suddenly worse.

When they arrived, Old Osmond was looking out at the Girls' Dormitories as a gout of flame licked out of one of the rooms. Nudging a mouse on his shoulder, he told his familiar, "It's good to see you safe up here. That might've been close." Sensing Colbert, he turned around saying, "We need to remind those girls that they shouldn't be wrecking the school outside of accidents in class. Why can't they be more like Miss Louise and blow up the parts of the school we're insured for?"

Colbert sweat dropped at this. "About that, Louise is here because she destroyed part of the infirmary. Plus, you and I both know why the Girls' Dorms are a battlefield right now."

In the distance, a yell of, "I see the mouse!" echoed before a torrent of wind and ice left the building.

Osmond coughed in his fist, "Anyway, Miss Valliere, what are you going to say for yourself?"

Louise, sensing she could flip the tone of the conversation, poured out the fragments of Colbert's door lock onto the Headmaster's desk and proclaimed, "I cast my first successful spell on this wretched lock."

'Wretched lock?' Osmond looked over to Colbert and understood. Acting through his disappointment at the loss of the tampered-with device, Osmond said, "Well, it was a terribly silly thing anyway, I'm personally glad it's been destroyed. No penalty will be given to you for that Miss Valliere." Colbert looked on in confusion, checked and still saw Osmond's familiar on his shoulder, and concluded he wasn't pulling a scheme. As far as he knew anyway.

Then Osmond and Colbert were silent for a second. Both looked more carefully at the pile of metal fragments. A pile of metal fragments without any soot or explosive deformations. Colbert suddenly remembered how pristine the rest of the infirmary was. Both shouted, "Louise! / Miss Valierre!, you did it!"

Osmond looked at the pile of metal scrap and asked, "What spell did you use?"

Louise puffed up, stuck her head up, and proclaimed, "I used a second tier, dot, metal fracturing spell."

Osmond was impressed, "And you got it to break into this many pieces?! This is cause for celebration! I have some orange sparkling dragon cider for just these occasions!" Osmond began rummaging through his desk. "Where is it? No, that's for when I have a hot date over. And that one I'm saving for my inevitable dinner with Miss Longueville. Oh, here it is!" He produced three champagne glasses and an orange bottle with fizzing red bubbles. Pouring each person a drink he said, "Got this back when the Princess made that silly law against children having wine, or whatever. Like she even follows it."

Though slightly blustered, Colbert and Louise toasted with Osmond to Louise's success.

Now it was the professor's turn to talk. "So, Louise, what did you do differently this time?"

"I-I don't know actually. It just felt different, like the power came from my gut instead of everywhere I guess." Osmond started to stroke his beard.

Colbert nodded, "Maybe you've been massively overdrawing on your willpower reserves? You were still recovering so you would be operating with a much smaller reserve than normal. Normally, using excessive power just makes a spell more potent though."

"That doesn't sound right though, sensei. If anything, I used more power in that spell than normal."

Osmond sipped his cider, "Miss Valliere? How many spells have you cast since you summoned your familiar?"

"Just that one. Are you suggesting my familiar has something to do with this?"

"Colbert, you said that Louise's familiar claimed to have granted Louise two wishes before it's disappearance. What was Louise's second wish, again?"

Colbert was thunderstruck, until now he thought the dragon Louise summoned was just making a fool of her before fleeing and leaving her injured as some sort of retribution. "Her second wish was, at its core, for Louise to be able to cast spells correctly. I thought that was silly though, Louise should have already been able to do that making a granted wish a moot point."

"Exactly, some factor beyond the normal set must have been inhibiting Louise's magic. You and I have translated the micro script on Louise's rune, and you said she was struck by four bolts of magic."

Louise tried jumping in at this, "Does this have something to do with Gandalfr? I haven't seen a reference to it in the rune manuals you left me professor."

Colbert looked to Osmond on how to proceed. Osmond smirked back, "Miss Longueville? I want Louise to repeat her spell. Please retrieve a duplicate lock from Colbert's workshop. Don't be afraid to dig around, it might be buried a ways down." Colbert raised a brow as Miss Longueville huffed off hiding how perturbed she was.

After a long moment of silence, Colbert asked, "You know there aren't any more locks in my lab. Louise destroyed the only one. Why'd you send her off on a wild goose chase like that?"

Leaning back the wise headmaster replied, "Miss Longueville is a foreign agent. Don't let word of this out, ok? She's either a spy or a thief, or possibly some combination. I fortunately ruled out the possibility she was an assassin, so I've been keeping an eye on her for the crown. Whenever she tries to make a move, I enjoy playing the part of my inner pervert to harass her ploys. Good fun for me, and she would risk failing her mission if she ever stopped putting up with it. Suffice it to say, she shouldn't be privy to what's next."

Louise was now battling another internal conflict. "So, you do all those perverted things as a cover for what's really going on?! Is that really necessary?"

Osmond giggled behind his hand with a mild blush. "No, but it's effective. As far as a cover goes, mostly it makes my part more fun." He grinned lecherously.

"So, you are just a filthy pervert!" Louise fumed.

"That can be talked about another time though. Back to the important topic!"

Colbert turned to Louise, "About the rune on your hand, the one part we know most about is Gandalfr. Gandalfr, as a standalone rune, is the mark of one of Brimir's four familiars. Another name for Gandalfr is 'The Left Hand of God'."

Osmond picked up, "Gandalfr was legendary for her power to wield any weapon as a master would and could slay armies in defense of her master. Until recently, we suspected that your affinity was for void magic, Louise. If that were so, you would have summoned Gandalfr or one of the other familiars of Brimir."

Louise might have been more shocked by this if her system hadn't already gotten used to surprises like this. "So, you think I have _Brimir's Void_. That sounds almost heretical! But with all you seem to know..."

Colbert gave Louise a soft look, "Don't jump to that just yet Louise. Something abnormal happened during your summoning and you just cast an elemental spell. Something a true Void Mage like Brimir was incapable of."

"Wait!? What?! Did you say Brimir could only use void spells?"

"Yes, it's left out of the mass copied scriptures, but written accounts from the time and shortly after seem to stress this as some point of Brimir's divinity. That was our theory on your misfortune with casting spells."

Osmond again picked up the conversation, "If you were to summon Gandalfr, or in this case not cast a normal elemental spell. We would have sent you to live with Princess Henrietta at the Royal Palace to study the artifacts they have of Brimir there, and hopefully learn how to use your void magic for the defense of Tristain. However, it seems regular lessons may still be in order after all."

Colbert gravely sipped his fizzy cider, "When Henrietta arrives for the familiar showcase, we'll have to inform her of the change in plans. She'll be bringing an artifact that may prove whether you have an affinity for the Void, Louise. Until then, we want you to rest up, then return to class to show everyone what you can do now." Colbert beamed at Louise. In the background Osmond transfigured part of his desk into a sign reading, 'You Can Do It!'

Louise was flattered by all the solidified support she was receiving. "But I still don't know what I did different, and I can't even wrap my head around this Void magic I might be capable of. Plus, what am I going to do about my missing familiar and the rune on my hand?" Osmond tossed a pair of black fingerless gloves at Louise, who dropped them to the floor.

"Already ahead of you there. As far as your familiar, there haven't been any calls to war to take it down, so odds are we won't be seeing him wherever he's gone hiding. Wherever he went to, he got there without being seen after the ritual was over."

Colbert pulled up his staff, "As for using magic, let's do a test. Something simple, since you should be recovering. Repeat after me, 'Lucerna'." A small flame emitted from the top of his staff.

Louise fidgeted, she didn't want to blow herself up today, but her teachers were putting so much faith in her abilities right now she couldn't protest. Taking a deep breath and drawing her wand she could see Colbert inch out of its direct line of fire. 'So much for faith in me.' She shouted, "Lucerna!" and a flame the size of two of her fists appeared above her wand obscuring her face.

Everyone cheered as Colbert said, "It seems that horrid dragon delivered on Louise's wish. All that practice and study is finally paying off too." Louise let go of the spell and the lights faded. "Come on Louise, let's get you back to the infirmary and take it easy until you're all better."

Louise put on her new gloves and started to follow Colbert-sensei out the door. As she turned the corner she could hear Osmond speaking up, "By the way, you can thank Motsognir for his help earlier today another time."

'Hold on. Motsognir? His mouse!? Does that mean he knew about what happened earlier? But his mouse never saw me, it just... distracted Guiche and Montmorency just before Siesta came to save my exposed butt.' Louise was red to her shoulders all the way back to the infirmary.


	6. Chapter 6

**Still can't figure what I want to make chapter four's final version look like. In the meantime, here's the next chapter technically on time and making another short stop on the Louise humiliation train again. Also, plot development.**

Chapter 6: In Which Kirche is Shoved _Out_ of Beds

Louise lay in her infirmary bed thinking about her conversation with Osmond and Colbert. The old headmaster had managed to earn her respect despite all but openly admitting he was a pervert. She'd have to ponder how that was possible later.

'A Void Mage? That's why all my spells used to blow up, huh? But now I can cast spells because my familiar granted my wish. In doing so he struck me with four colorful magic beams. Four? And if my true affinity is for void, then did he give me an affinity for all four elements? I've already tried a fire and earth spell, how about wind and water?'

Standing up, Louise eyed the pile of tomes, then thought better of using them for practice. She was lucky enough that Colbert got distracted from her intentionally destroying the lock he was working on, she didn't want to push her luck with expensive books. "Flatus" pointing her wand at the floor, a gust swept the floor and deposited all the dust in the air around her. Louise coughed out, "Yay, -hak- I did it. So strong, -hak- too."

'Maybe a more complex spell next time?' Maybe something to clear the air, but it had to be water. 'I know one I wish I could've used every time I made a big cloud of soot'

After clearing her mouth of all the dust that got in, she began to chant, "Patet, unda, fluens, aer!" There was a light glow in the room as water droplets formed and dragged down all the dust to the cracks in the floor before evaporating back into the void. Louise was on a roll, and she felt like she still had another thirty or forty good spells in her. She couldn't wait to shove this in everybody else's faces.

Then a knock came at the door as Siesta returned. "Miss Valliere? Is there anything else I can do to help you today? If you want, I can take those books back to the library for you."

Louise wasn't done with those books yet, and Colbert had told her to rest until she was fully recovered. As exhilarating as it was to be capable of regular spells now, Louise still needed to figure out what the rune on her left hand meant. "No, I'm still reading those books, but a cup of tea would be lovely."

So, Louise set back to work on reading her books, and Siesta returned with a pot of Chamomile Tea. As Louise thanked Siesta for the tea, the maid sat down in a nearby chair and picked up one of the books.

Louise eyed Siesta strangely, "What are you doing?"

Siesta turned to her, "I'm going to help you with this research you're doing. You've had a string of bad luck, so I want to turn that around any way I can."

"Are you saying you know how to read?"

"Yes, my grandpa taught me Germanian, and I was tutored by a book keeper from my village to learn Gallian."

Seeing as Tristain's primary language was Gallian, and the vast majority of the other books at the academy were written in Germanian, Siesta could read 90% of the books in the school. "Ok, you can help. Let me tell you what sorts of information I'm looking for."

* * *

With dinner approaching, Siesta and Louise had found nearly nothing. The closest thing they found was an Ouroboros marking which supposedly meant immortality. Louise knew this wasn't right, otherwise she wouldn't be in the infirmary right now. Siesta left to get Louise dinner, then went off to finish her duties as a maid for the day.

Louise stretched back into her bed. Imagining her first day back to classes and showing off her newfound ability to do magic properly for once. Smiling to herself, she looked into a nearby mirror and whispered, "Lucerna." Making a tiny candle like flame emit from the tip of her wand. Additionally, it caused a tiny rune on her forehead to light up with an orange glow. Louise dropped her wand to the floor, and the rune disappeared. Grabbing a hand mirror, she meticulously analyzed the fading impression of the bruise on her forehead.

Right in the middle, and the size of an ant, was a rune reading, 'Ignis', or 'Fire'. Grabbing her wand, she set off her candle spell again, and the rune glowed orange. Thinking, she incanted, "Refrigo." and tapped her pillow cooling it. On her lips, a rune reading, 'Aqua', or 'Water' flashed a deep blue.

Sensing the pattern, Louise refrained from ripping her top off, carefully slipping each layer off onto the floor. "Flatus" a much softer gust than earlier, and a rune reading 'Ventus', 'Wind' glowed cyan between her breasts. "Petra" a pebble shot out at the floor, and a golden rune reading 'Terra', 'Earth' sparked atop her belly button.

'So, this is how the dragon helped me.' A rapid knocking was at the door.

"Louise? We're coming in to visit." The Zerbst was at the door, her top was on the floor, and she had just pulled her bandages into a much more revealing position in an effort to see the runes. Not thinking, Louise grabbed her clothes, and plunged her upper half under the sheets yelling, "Not now! Stay out!"

Upon opening the door, Kirche was greeted by Louise's clothed derrière presenting itself to her. 'I have no idea why she's presenting like that, but Louise is just asking for it.' "I see someone's eager tonight." she drawled. It was fortunate that Tabitha was tired of coming here only to be kept out.

Louise stayed silent and tried to carefully adjust her wardrobe. Kirche sauntered over to Louise, "Is this for me? Oh, what a naughty girl you are Louise." Still Louise did not respond, but instead wiggled under the sheets. 'Where the hell is my wand? I could really use a smokescreen right now!' Kirche interpreted this as only a Zerbst could. "Does Little Louise want Momma to take a look?" Kirche reached down and grabbed the hem of Louise's skirt.

Louise shot up straight like a rake, with a half-buttoned shirt on yelling, "Louise does **not** want Momma to take a peek!" Face red as Kirche's hair, Louise grabbed the Zerbst's arm and shoved it away from her. Later Louise would reflect back on this and be relieved hardly anyone would be in this tower at this time.

Louise wailed up to Kirche, "Why are you here Zerbst? What do you want from me, you, you dog in heat!" She held her shirt closed as she grabbed her cloak.

"Dog in heat? Calling me that after you were wagging your tail at me like that is hilarious. But let's put that aside for now darling. I'm here to bring you a get well present after what happened two days ago." Reaching into a pocket, she produced the perfume she bought from Montmorency.

Louise, now decent if sloppily dressed, was confused. Was Kirche being nice to her? Then what was all that earlier nonsense about!? Not waiting on her, Kirche set the perfume and a card in Louise's hand.

Kirche stepped back, "Now, how have you been Louise? I see you can definitely move around now."

Louise wanted to get this changeling that had taken Kirche's shape out of her room as soon as possible. "I've been fine, and I'll see you in class by the beginning of next week, and why did you give me this though?"

"Didn't I say it was a get-well gift? Well, I talked with someone who seemed to know a bit about you and got you this as it seemed appropriate for a girl at your point in life."

Louise couldn't parse the deeply woven implications Kirche was leaving in her speech. "Well, thank you. I'd appreciate it if you let me get some sleep and forget what happened earlier. Else I'll have to loose my whole arsenal of spells on you." Louise felt she was asking a lot of people to forget about embarrassing things that happened to her lately. Fortunately, the Zerbst seemed to be in an accommodating mood today as she didn't take her threat seriously.

"Ok, but first you have to tell me everything about Shenron?"

"Shenlong?"

"Shenron, the dragon you summoned, Louise. Don't tell me you didn't catch his name?" Kirche sat down on Louise's bed and got comfortable.

Seeing the Zerbst settling in to her bed, Louise sat down next to her and put a hand to the back of her shoulder. "I don't remember all the details of what happened that day. Now, get off my bed!"

Kirche was deft enough to get out of the bed before being shoved to the floor. "You don't? Oh, poor little Louise! You bumped your head because of that mean ol' dragon. I'll tell you all about it if you want."

Louise was fuming like a tea kettle seconds from boiling. Drawing her wand on Kirche Von Anhalt Zerbst, she threatened, "Get out now, or I'll show you exactly what that dragon did to me!"

Kirche threw her hands up in surrender. "Ok, I see someone needs their beauty rest right now. So, I'll leave you be, and that'll be all, ok?" Louise glared at her as she stepped out the door.

Hearing the last of Kirche's footsteps die out, Louise got comfortable for the night. It would be nice to be back in her own room by tomorrow night if possible. Her room had a lock that didn't tear her clothes off. The only thing good that came from this room so far was casting her first spell that didn't fail. She lit up her wand like a candle again, and there was the glowing rune again. "I'll have to do something about that." 'So, this is the side effect of giving me control of my magic. Where are you, Shenron?' It sounded like Kirche and probably Tabitha had more information about the summoning than she did. She'd have to find out what they knew somehow. She wasn't asking Kirche, and Tabitha stuck to her like a leech. Furthermore, Tabitha would probably set a personal record for words spoken in a day a few times over before she even finished getting all the details.

She realized how little she knew about her familiar. The list was something like: is a monstrously large, magic, green dragon, marked me with runes, allowed me to do magic right because he grants wishes, and hurt me with lots of explosions and lightning. She felt like she was missing an important detail still.

The familiar spoke a lot about the master. So, what did Shenron say about her? He was powerful and had a magic unlike most others. That lent support to that Void Mage theory, as crazy as that was. He also hurt his dear master in granting her wish with lots of explosions and lightning. 'Nothing relevant can be gleaned from that.' Lastly, after the summoning, Shenron disappeared to somewhere far away she guessed. Again, she couldn't see any relation there. "Argh." 'I'll never get sleep like this.'

* * *

"I don't know what I did wrong Tabitha. I just wanted to give her a get-well gift, and now Louise hates me more than anyone else."

"Really?"

"Ok, I might have been a bit forward with her when I first arrived, but she didn't say anything and shook it at me. If that isn't an open invitation, I don't know what is!"

Tabitha reached for her book but stopped when Kirche spotted her.

"The worst part is that she doesn't remember much from her summoning, but flat out rejected my generous offer to tell her everything I knew about it. She didn't even know her dragon's name was Shenron." Kirche sat down in Tabitha's bed. "Shenron isn't even that great a familiar. He says he's a wish granting dragon, then he just zaps Louise like it was some sick joke he was pulling and leaves before Louise can finish summoning him properly. A wish granting dragon that doesn't grant wishes, total baloney."

"Does he?"

"What do you mean? Of course, he doesn't. Why else would Louise be in the infirmary right now?"

"Cast spell yet?"

Kirche pondered this for a moment. "I guess there hasn't been any explosions from that part of the academy. Louise is still recovering after all. But that's absurd, if Shenron grant her first wish, then he would be still hovering over the castle right now, right?"

Tabitha could only shrug at this.

Changing the topic, Kirche settled into Tabitha's bed saying, "Ok, who wants to sleep with Momma Zerbst tonight?"

Tabitha grabbed her staff and a book and left the room.

"Hold on Tabitha, it was just a joke! You know how I am, don't you? Please don't run out on me, I didn't mean anything by it!"

Tabitha continued around the loop that would bring her back to her room after Kirche decided to go to bed, contemplative frown on her face all the while.


	7. Chapter 7

**The erase evidence this story ever existed option has been removed from my options as someone has** _DOWNLOADED_ **this story. Additionally, I'm a slouch and still haven't finished (or started) revising chapter 4. Don't judge, you try and maintain a schedule of work, college for a STEM degree, maintaining a social life, and reading other people's fanfics while writing a story. It's surprisingly easier than I thought, so go ahead and judge I guess.**

 **Anyways, shorter chapter today that advances the plot without risking total humiliation for Louise. Guest may like this in other words. Enjoy.**

Chapter 7: Dirty Commerce Practices

Waking up in the infirmary was getting old quick. Luckily, Miss Geauri, the school's healer, had checked Louise's bandages and declared her good to leave the infirmary, so long as she took it easy today. That shouldn't be a problem, as a member of the nobility, Louise knew how to have a productive but easy day.

If only she wasn't raring to practice more advanced spells than 'candle'. If she tried practicing anything serious she might risk reopening a few of her bigger wounds, and she was done with that damn infirmary. So, Louise decided to spend the day in the Library to see if she could progress further on the mystery of the rune hiding under her glove.

Taking a small detour by the kitchens Louise spotted Siesta cleaning a griddle for the cooks, and pulled her attention. "Siesta, I would like your help in the library once you're done helping the kitchen staff. Don't rush, I'll be a bit, and do bring some tea." Siesta merely confirmed she heard the order before returning to work with a melancholy smile.

'That's taken care of. Now to put the stupid gift from Kirche somewhere where the sun doesn't shine.' Pulling out the gift on her way to her room, she noticed the attached card, and began to read. 'Let's see here. An odor reducing perfume? Why would anyone want that? Isn't the point of perfume to give you a good aroma, not get rid of bad ones? If Kirche is trying to say I have neglected my hygiene, this is a terrible delivery of that message.'

Reading the first few lines, Louise started to get a bad feeling. 'Hope you enjoy this Montmorency grade product... For feminine needs? ... Hides evidence after special bedtime rituals!? ... Apply to your -WHAT?-!?'

Louise tried to maintain her composure standing a few feet from her room. Blood fought to once again invade her face, and Louise trembled under her mantle.

This was the most depraved joke of Kirche's she had ever been subjected to. Kirche probably intended on catching her with this in hand in front of a large group of people! She would pay. But how? Louise uncapped the bottle and wafted up the scent. For a perfume it was nearly innocuous, but in large quantities it smelled of faint lemons, cat piss, and a strange sickly-sweet she was unfamiliar with. What a strange combination. With this she knew what she would do. 'I'll drench Kirche in this stuff to show everyone what a loose legged floozy she is!' So, she'd keep the perfume in a back pocket to hide it until Kirche was prime for the taking.

Louise laughed a bit internally as she set off for the library.

At the library, Louise carefully sat down with a fresh stack of relevant tomes, not sitting on the perfume in her back pocket. Colbert was absent, most likely busy with the week's last day of classes. Louise settled in to read, and like clockwork, Siesta arrived and poured her a cup of tea.

Not wasting time, Louise instructed Siesta on what she wanted her to read to help her in her research. Feeling off put by helping Louise study, Siesta said, "Miss Valliere, excuse me for this, but aren't you misusing the campus servants in having me help you study?"

Louise perked up at this. Yes, it was unorthodox for students to have a servant help them study, but unlike Siesta, most servants couldn't read. "It's ok Siesta, I can explain this to the Headmaster if there are any issues, and he should be fine with it. I plan on having you help me more with this in the future if it doesn't put too much strain on the other staff. Don't worry though."

Siesta straightened the slight slouch she was developing. Grabbing the edges of her apron, she interjected, "I'm afraid I won't be able to help you much past tomorrow or at most Voidsday. But, not because the staff needs me, they've already planned around that..."

Louise felt a worrying confusion bubbling up. "If the staff can get by without you, then why won't you be able to help me? Are you skipping out of helping me, Siesta?"

Siesta stood up and bowed to Louise. "No, as of tomorrow night, Count Mott will be purchasing me from the academy to serve him. I'm sorry Miss Valliere, but I won't be able to help you anymore. Thank you for making my last days here interesting though. I'll look back on them fondly once I'm gone."

That would put a stopper in Louise's plans. Furthermore, Siesta appeared very upset at this. "Siesta, you seem to be very perturbed over being Count Mott's servant, why's that?"

Siesta let out a slow, deep breath, "Count Mott is not after any labor I can provide him. He only looked at me before showing Osmond his interest in buying me. I hope you understand what that means for me."

Louise bit her lip at this. She knew not all the perverted nobles were content with having maids as eye candy like Osmond was. She had a very clear picture of what was destined for Siesta, and it sickened her to her core. For any other servant, she may not have bat an eye at this news. But this was Siesta.

The same Siesta that fed her when she was injured. The Siesta who could keep her secrets for her. The one who helped her without hesitation when she was in trouble. The maid who protected her from Kirche. The woman who took time out of her day every day to help her with whatever she needed.

Louise decided at that moment, Siesta would not be subjected to the whims of some barbaric noble's practices. It was a noble's duty to look out for their worthy servants. Today, she'd put that to practice.

Slamming her book onto the table, Louise proclaimed, "I'm going to the Headmaster's office right now! You sit tight Siesta, and count on me to rectify this like an honorable noble should."

Louise left the room in a flurry, a whirlwind almost forming around her with her movements. As she left, Siesta sat reviewing what could have happened in Louise's head that she was missing out on. Not wanting to be a lay-about, Siesta started to read as Louise instructed before the pieces started to fall in place. 'No, she wouldn't. She's the definition of a perfect noble. Why would she do that for me?' Siesta had to see what was about to happen, so she grabbed the tea set, and moved to not miss a thing.

After making a quick stop in her room, Louise was now at Old Osmond's office. Knocking on the door, she made a scan for the headmaster's familiar. You could never be sure of his current modus operandi. Miss Longueville answered the door, "Louise? Back already? Osmond asked me to let you in immediately if you stopped by. You're close to Professor Colbert, right? If you would be so kind, do you know where that lock he keeps going on about is? He's been grilling me for not finding it yet."

Louise smirked a bit at that, Osmond was keeping that goose chase up. It served a spy like Miss Longueville right. Thinking of which, the fact the secretary was a spy and the implications of that were just now hitting Louise. 'Focus, you're here for Siesta's sake.'

Moving in to the office, Louise sat before Osmond, and before she could, Osmond spoke, "Ah, Louise, back so soon? Did you learn something? Wait, Longueville, you still haven't found me that lock. Be a dear, and go look for it again." Irritation flowed like water through Miss Longueville's face, but she nodded and left shooting Louise a pleading glance that went unanswered.

Louise paused for a second realizing there was no way Osmond could know why she was here right now. Staring him down, she said, "Headmaster, I'm here to purchase one of the academia's servants, Siesta."

Osmond raised an eyebrow at this. He was surprised someone like Louise would make this kind of move. He had a good feeling as to why the sudden interest Louise was showing came to be. Maybe he could work something out with her. "If you're here to negotiate for Siesta, I'm afraid that someone else has already made a bid for her. Unless you could show me a reason to let you buy her instead, she'll be going to someone else."

Louise expected this much, "How much did Count Mott offer for her? I'll outbid him, if you tell me his price."

Smiling like a child who got away with something naughty, Osmond returned, "Miss Valierre, I'll have you know letting you know Count Mott's bid of 450 gold Écu is highly inappropriate. Do not ask me such things, for I cannot answer you."

Louise was stunned. Like Osmond suggested previously, the old, wrinkly, perverted skin he wore was just to hide a still mildly perverted heart of gold. He was giving her an easy in into purchasing Siesta. "Fine, I don't need to know what Count Mott's bid is, I'll just open with 460 gold pieces. If that interests you that is." A drop of sweat rolled down Louise's face, her school budget for the year was 500 gold Écu even being a wealthy daughter of a Duke. This would be a tight school year.

"460 gold, huh? There's no way I can snub that offer. I'm afraid that the previous buyer will have to negotiate with you instead. Let me get the paperwork Miss Valliere." Osmond proceeded to pull out a scroll already ready to sell Siesta specifically.

Louise dumped her gold onto the desk and quickly counted out the 460 she promised. It was a simple affair to sign the contract, and Louise giddily got ready to leave.

Osmond stopped her with a cough, "I suppose no progress was made on your special research Louise?" Louise nodded gravely. "Well we can't have our researchers understaffed or lacking in budget. Seeing as you now lack a budget, take this grant of 110 gold Écu for your research. Spend it wisely, ok?" He shoved roughly a quarter of her money back at her from the pile she was supposed to be buying Siesta with.

If she wasn't before, Louise was now sure that Osmond was giving her an easy inroad to buying Siesta before Mott could. She had to ask, "Why did you help me so much just now? That was way too easy."

Osmond spun around in his special, Colbert Patented Swiveling Chair and sighed, "With the exception of one in each case, I believe that all Men should be able to enjoy looking at the beautiful Women this world has been blessed with, but never defile them with their touch. The one Lady exception being obvious to you I hope." Turning back to Louise he declared, "Count Mott is clearly one who doesn't believe this. I couldn't give proper reason to keep Siesta here though, so I was forced to negotiate. Thank you for your involvement Louise." Smirking now and fingering some of the Écu he just received, Osmond added, "I might have taken a bid as low as 250 if you spiced it up with something like a beach day with your friends, if you were curious." He chortled at the thought of that.

'Yep, still a real pervert.' Thanking Osmond, she left with contract in hand, and a light, but not too light, purse on her hip.

Turning at the bottom of the stairs leading to the Headmaster's office, Louise spotted Siesta making her way over to her. Siesta spotted the paper in Louise's hand, and exclaimed, "Miss Valliere, you didn't!"

Louise gave a victorious grin back, "Yes, I did."

In a moment Louise was enveloped in Siesta's unyielding hug. The one thing that ruined this was Louise's still tender, left everything. "Siesta, my side is still healing, please refrain from such physical jubilation."

So Siesta set Louise down belting out, "Yes, Mistress."

'Right, she's my servant now.' "Ok Siesta, I won't lie. That cost me a lot of Écu, so I hope you'll make up for it in time. But don't worry about that for now. Let's get back to what we were doing before." Things were going her way for a day without potential humiliation hovering over her head, and Louise smiled gently and without effort for the first time in an age. Not a smile given with victory, or mocking, or laughter, but a smile for the small good deeds one accomplishes in life.


	8. Chapter 8

**This will be on time! Just let me turn my clock back a few minutes real quick! Anyways, rule of fours seems to be chapters that need more work. This one feels a tad fast paced still. Enjoy nonetheless!**

Chapter 8: An Unlearned Lesson

It was now Saturday, and Louise was back in top shape. She was currently researching alongside Professor Colbert, and Siesta had just brought a plate of crumpets from the kitchen. Louise was going through and translating an early text on familiar summoning that was written in an old form of Romalian.

This is when she noticed something interesting. "Colbert-sensei, this book seems to mention people summoning more than one familiar. I thought you could only perform the ritual once?"

Glasses leveled themselves at the other end of the table. "Right, making a second summoning ritual is not uncommon, actually. It's relatively common for mages to lose their familiars to either combat or old age. So, some mages choose to summon a new familiar to replace their old one. In Osmond's case, his familiar is his eleventh as mice and other ground critters live on average at most ten years. Most parents peddle a false tale of destined familiars, and a single summoning, but that's usually intended to make sure young mages respect their familiar. Additional summonings only work if the original familiar has perished. Furthermore, there is no guarantee subsequent summoning rituals will be successful."

Louise leaned into her chair considering this new information. "Professor, should I try another summoning ritual? The last was anything but normal."

Shaking his head Colbert answered her question, "Maybe, maybe not. Odds are nothing will happen. You might summon another familiar, or resummon that dragon. It could even rebound on you. In any case, we would need to have a healer ready, and be prepared to play the dragon's wishing gambit. But, we would learn something about your familiar. You just recovered from last time, so perhaps we should hold off on that."

Louise stood up, "We aren't learning anything from these books. I say we try it. I'm ready for whatever happens."

Colbert pinched the bridge of his nose, unwilling to argue with Louise, "Miss Geauri won't be happy seeing you risking injury like this so soon. Siesta, can you fetch her for us? Louise, you can help me get the reagents and other supplies."

Colbert stood up and indicated for Louise to follow him. He then led her to a storage room with abundant amounts of chalk, incense, and candles. Muttering, he caused a crate to levitate as he carried it out. Louise mimicked him, chanting, "Volito, Materia." forcing several crates off the ground as she followed an impressed Colbert.

"A bit eager to start, are we? Don't burn your willpower reserves before we start."

Louise could feel her chest glowing under her shirt, "That's ok Professor. My willpower reserves are more developed than I thought they would be."

"Have you already been practicing Louise? You know you were supposed to be resting right?"

"Sorry, I was a bit eager to cast spells for the first time. I hope you can forgive me."

Exiting the tower and entering the courtyard, Colbert nodded, "That's perfectly understandable. I won't tell Miss Geauri if you don't."

After a moment of silence, Louise spotted Kirche and Tabitha resting under a shady tree with Montmorency and Guiche nearby. Apparently, Montmorency had coaxed Guiche into giving her a shoulder rub this morning. That wasn't important right now though, Tabitha had set down her book to look at them and appeared to be getting Kirche's attention. Louise moved to hide behind Colbert, but it was too late. Kirche and Tabitha were making their way over.

Then Colbert stopped to greet them, and Louise's mood plummeted. Kirche opened up, "Nice to see you up and about Louise, what are you doing following a teacher around?"

'Ok, that wasn't all that bad compared to her typical opening remarks.' Keeping her wand up as to maintain the levitating crates, she responded, "I'm doing an experiment with Professor Colbert, now please let us by."

Before Kirche could retort, Tabitha interjected, "Experiment?" She started to look between the crates and Colbert.

This time Colbert answered, "Yes, there may be something that goes awry, so I would appreciate a lack of participants, and Louise has already volunteered I'm afraid."

Now Kirche was putting on a pout. "That's not fair Professor, Louise is always doing your extra credit assignments. Let me help today, I would appreciate the opportunity."

Colbert turned to Kirche, his crate moving a little with him. "I'm sorry Kirche, but I must insist you stay behind. You've only had your familiar for four days, maybe you could spend time with him?"

Kirche couldn't come up with a rapid counter argument to that and accepted the advice. "I suppose you're right Professor, I should be giving my familiar plenty of love and attention. However, Louise needs to stop by and have that chat about familiars we've been meaning to have." With that promise of future conversations, Kirche left to go find her salamander, Flame.

Tabitha was not so easily ditched though. Pulling her staff to a ready position, she proudly declared, "I can protect myself. Take me with you." Everyone within five feet of Tabitha could hear her. Those people being Louise, and Colbert.

Colbert in turn turned to Louise and looked at her for input. Louise hadn't had issues with Tabitha, as the girl rarely spoke. Her big concern was Tabitha spilling details to Kirche. Then again, would Tabitha be able to muster the words to explain anything that Kirche didn't guess on her own? Louise gave Colbert an assenting shrug, and Tabitha immediately took over the levitation of two of Louise's crates.

As they exited the academy walls and headed to a flat field nearby, Tabitha murmured to Louise, "Second wish worked?"

It took Louise a second to parse that, but then she saw Tabitha pointedly staring at her wand, still up to levitate her crate. There went surprising Tabitha, not that that was worth having on the agenda though. "Yes, ever since my summoning incident, I've had no problems with my magic. You're very observant, aren't you Tabitha?"

Tabitha shrugged in return looking at the supplies poking from the crates. "Another summoning?"

'Clearly, Tabitha has us figured out.' Louise nodded solemnly, "Yes, we believe we will learn more about what happened to my familiar with a second attempt."

Tabitha's lips slightly puckered for a second, "What do you want from me to get a wish, should you summon Shenron again?"

That was a lot of words from Tabitha, and a full articulate sentence to boot! Whatever she wanted must be extremely important. Her dragon could grant wishes to a degree, so that must be worth a lot. What would she want from Tabitha that would be a fair trade? Louise grew progressively more silent as she pondered that question.

Tabitha was gazing at Louise with hope filled eyes and bated breath. So, Louise laid out what she knew, "Honestly, I don't know if I'll even summon the dragon-"

"Shenron." Tabitha inserted.

"-Shenron, again. Odds are nothing will happen today. Generally, all I want is to practice my magic and figure out what happened to Shenron."

Tabitha waited for Louise to continue.

"Granted your wish is noble, and you don't mind the risk of wishing on that infernal dragon, then you can have a wish. All I ask is that you help me find him if you want a wish."

Tabitha set the crates down where they were now, and hugged Louise with a mild shaking. "Thank you, I'll do anything to help." Tabitha could already envision her mother recovering from the ailment that had plagued her for so long. Simultaneously, Louise was reveling in the sensation of Tabitha being so expressive. She could tell Tabitha was hoping to settle something personal, but what? As impolite as it was to ask, she had to -.

A few meters away, Colbert coughed into his fist. "I hope you're done with that now, we have a summoning circle to set up." That broke the moment like glass in a rockslide.

So, the three prepared a summoning circle, and Siesta brought Miss Geauri by, whom was nonplussed at possibly seeing Louise injured again so soon. Louise stepped up to the summoning circle, while Tabitha and Miss Geauri prepared to cast appropriate shielding spells. Louise took in a deep breath, she really hoped she wouldn't come out of this as if she were attacked by a cheese grater again. All sorts of things could go wrong with this.

Letting that breath out and readying herself again, Louise started, "Pentagon of the five elements, grant me your power." Louise felt power well up in her being, and her four ventral runes glowing. "Bring forth my powerful, massive, and destructive familiar. Make him answer to my guidance and appear!"

Nothing happened, her runes faded back to their near skin tone, and a light breeze declared there was no more to see. Louise frowned, this was likely to occur, but it was still disappointing. The only one happy with the result was Miss Geauri, who settled her curly hair, and mentioned she was glad that they were done now.

Then Tabitha piped up again, "Forgot a step."

Everyone looked to her in confusion, Louise was confident in her summoning ritual. "What did I forget? We set up the circle immaculately, and I used all the key words of the ritual. I even felt the magic flowing for a second."

Tabitha nodded, clearly only she and Kirche had listened to the summoned dragon. She didn't blame Louise and Colbert though, they were busy stopping Louise from dying in the dragon's powerful wake. "Shenron said to summon him by name." Tabitha could feel her vocal cords straining at the amount of use they were experiencing today.

"By name?" Thinking back, Louise did remember Shenron saying something about another summoning. "Ok, I'll take it from the top again, this time using the dragon's name." So, she turned around and approached the circle again.

Louise's audience of three prepared themselves again with less enthusiasm. The summoner approached the circle, drawing her wand once more. With similar zeal, Louise started again, "Pentagon of the five elements, grant me your power. Bring forth my powerful, massive, destructive familiar. Bring forth Shenron! -" The glow of her runes faded, and Louise immediately grabbed at her left hand in pain upon saying Shenron's name. Pulling off a glove, she could see the seven stars on her rune pulse a faint red color. 'What the hell is going on?'

Colbert was on Louise in a flash and inspecting her hand just as the last few pulses dimmed out. "Louise, are you ok? Can you move your fingers?" Now Miss Geauri was looking at Louise's hand too.

Louise easily made a fist before wiggling her fingers. "Yes, everything's fine now, but what exactly happened?" She put her glove back on, and Tabitha joined the circle, who eyed Louise's left hand.

Colbert was thoughtful for a moment. "I don't know, but we won't be trying anymore summonings today. I'm going to do some more research on the matter. I suggest you enjoy the rest of the weekend Louise, I imagine you've had a long week, go smell the roses or some such."

Louise sighed, even with all the time she spent in a bed this week, she was still feeling a bit tired. Heading back to the interior of the academy, Louise felt Tabitha tap her left hand. 'That's not good, very, very not good.' Looking back at Tabitha, the bluenette was giving her a pointed look. "Help."

Louise decided that Tabitha needed to learn to vocalize her thoughts in more than one-word statements. She could not guess the specifics of what she meant or was suggesting. Tabitha seemed to believe she made herself perfectly clear though. Louise pushed her luck to get more out of Tabitha, "I'm sorry, but what does 'help' mean? You're going to need to be more specific."

Tabitha merely tapped her glove again, then walked up into Louise's personal space. This freaked Louise out, she didn't want Tabitha to see her rune, but she couldn't easily find an excuse not to show Tabitha her hand. While thinking this over, Tabitha had inched closer. Louise noticed that Tabitha was one of the few students in her year shorter than her, it was plain as day with the strands of blue almost at her chin. Tabitha closed in again, and Louise felt her back hit a tree. Rapidly freaking out from Tabitha's sudden strange behavior, Louise looked for an escape. In the distance, she saw her ever faithful and convenient maid heading towards her. 'Perfect, I can always count on Siesta.'

Slipping elegantly past Tabitha, Louise rushed off saying, "My maid needs my input on something, duty calls, hehehe." Now next to a confused picnic wielding Siesta, Louise whispered, "Help me get away from Tabitha, she's been acting very strange and I don't like it."

Siesta sighed, "Bedroom picnic for lunch then I presume." Siesta was really looking forward to having a nice picnic to get Louise outside after all her time in the infirmary. However, eluding lovestruck suitors of Louise took precedence. 'Luckily the blue-haired boy in the distance hasn't moved to follow Louise yet.'

So, Louise and Siesta had a picnic in Louise's bedroom, and Tabitha went to get Kirche for help with a brewing plan.


	9. Chapter 9

**Egads! I'm late! At least I spruced up Chapter 4 a little. That'll be updated shortly.**

 **Anyways feel free to comment on my horrible sense of pacing, and/or enjoy this week's update.**

Chapter 9: Egregious Distractions

Finishing the impromptu indoor picnic Siesta and Louise were having, Siesta stood up to look out the window at the academies' gateway. Currently, a guarded carriage was entering the grounds, and a new yet familiar face stepped out. 'Count Mott.'

Siesta ducked under the window and looked at Louise. The mage looked back confused and scanned through the window. "Oh." Louise thought for a second. "You know he won't see you through a random tower window from down there right?" Siesta gave a nervous laugh in response. "Stay here, I'll handle Mott for you."

Louise exited the room and made for the central tower to intercept Mott should he not be satisfied with Osmond's explanation of her purchase of Siesta.

In the courtyard, she saw Count Mott taking his time to get to the Headmaster's office. To her disgust, it appeared Kirche was flirting with him. That's when a weight in her back pocket reminded her of unfinished plans. All the better to hit two perverts with one bottle.

Then she spotted the perfect vantage point. A walkway on the outer edge of the central tower, and with Kirche slowing down Mott, she would have plenty of time to get in position.

She rushed up to get above her targets, taking two steps at a time. Getting off the flight of stairs, she made a sharp turn onto the overarching walkway, launching bits of gravel outwards like arrows in a volley. Then she slammed into something.

That something was another student who she had promptly bowled over. The two of them fell tumbling over each other, a loud crack was heard, and Louise flopped onto the student.

Regaining her bearings, Louise found herself with both her hands on someone's elbows and pushing herself up into a crawling position she straddled a boy from her year with skewed glasses. She could hear him mutter to himself, "Glomped by the Zero, I'll never hear the end of this."

Before Louise could retaliate to that, the boy continued, "As nice as it is to see you up and about with so much energy Louise, I must know, what are you doing up here knocking people over?"

Louise stuttered for a second, she couldn't tell him what she was up here to do. She was a refined noble, and nobles weren't supposed to pull pranks. 'Speaking of which, why am I resorting to something so petty anyhow?' The boy needed a response however.

Making up a likely story in her head, Louise started, "I needed to ask Professor Colbert about spell casting. I wanted to catch him before he went to his laboratory for the rest of the day." Clever girl, that should work as a solid alibi.

The boy responded, "Yeah, I was too, but I'm afraid you're too late. He's not in his office right now, we must have just missed him." He bought her story, now she had to just get back to work.

Relaxing into a sitting position, Louise felt something soft shift, and start growing. Not looking down, her face turned to patches of ruby and crimson. Her body froze in mortification at what she was doing.

The boy was not faring much better, with a face the color of a red delicious he audibly fought his voice from pitching up, "If you would be so kind as to let yourself up. I would be extremely grateful. Louise... Louise, you'll have to move first you're pinning me."

Snapping back into action, Louise jumped like a rocket, and stood rigid a few steps away from the boy she knocked over. He stood up and faced away from her while adjusting his glasses. There was a pause here as both parties felt the blood draining from their faces, one finding this distinctly counterproductive to his current efforts.

Choosing to look at the floor, Louise saw a bit of broken glass. Then she saw an empty and damaged bottle of perfume. 'No, I had plans for you!' Thinking for another second, she looked herself over and saw a massive wet spot on her clothes around her pelvis. Less importantly to Louise, the boy was also stained with the special perfume.

The boy responded, "Thank you, if you would never talk about this… let's just not talk about this." His nose twitched, "What's that smell? It's so strange." He turned his head and saw the cracked open bottle on the pathway. "Oh, I'm sorry about breaking your perfume. I can help pay to replace it."

Louise did not want him thinking about the perfume at all. "That's fine, just forget about all this and I'll call it even."

More silence before the boy nodded. "I see we can agree on not letting anyone hear about this. Thank you, Louise."

"Thank you, uh..."

"My name is Reynald, Reynald de Châtillon."

"Thank you Reynald." Louise bent down to pick up the broken bottle. Then Reynald blanched, making a choked noise. Louise followed his eyes to see Guiche and Montmorency arm in arm staring at them.

Guiche sniffed the air, and Montmorency's nose twitched. Guiche looked between Montmorency and Louise, "Do I smell?"

Montmorency bit her lip, "We don't tell anyone about this, okay Guiche?"

Louise and Reynald realizing what the couple had seen were both stammering messes. Guiche nodded to Montmorency and extending his arm to an unknown audience in the distance said, "It seems it is up to us to be the responsible figures. Being more experienced with love, we must teach our friends."

Montmorency nodded gravely, "If we have to. Also, you don't have much ground for talking about love after acting proper for half a week." This caused Guiche to give a muted choke. "Anyway, you two are coming with us." Montmorency proceeded to grab Louise by her forearm and drag her along. For her part, Louise had one too many thoughts competing for brainpower to protest at the moment.

Guiche pushed along an equally flustered Reynald, who managed to make a bungled threat about line mages and dot mages.

Before the victims of circumstance were able to recover, they were moved into Montmorency's room. Louise took in a deep breath and let it back out. "This is all a misunderstanding, I just bumped into him, and we had a spill."

Reynald was reset by Louise's words, "That's right, we were both just looking for Professor Colbert. Nothing was happening."

Montmorency raised an eyebrow, "Then why are you both drenched in 'that' perfume. I can still see the water marks around your hips."

Louise came to the realization of what could be inferred by that, and fell back into a pillow, mortified again, she did not have time for this right now. Reynald did not know the significance of the perfume, "What does Louise's perfume have to do with anything? Can't you let us go? We've suffered enough awkward situations today."

Guiche gawked at that, "Louise, I can tell you were the one making the advances, but how much have you been taking advantage of Reynald's innocent nature?" Guiche leaned over to whisper to Monmon, "I thought the perfume was specifically for the Ladies, is Louise misinformed, or ..."

Monmon whispered back, "I don't know, but I'm not interested in finding out anytime soon. So don't get any ideas."

Louise sat up, "I see what this looks like. You must understand that it was my mistake for carrying that stupid perfume on me. Reynald and I are not in any kind of romantic arrangement, I was just in a haste and 'making my way' around corners less cautiously than normal. Please let us go, I have important business that could be coming up any moment now." Louise grabbed Montmorency's hands and gave her pleading eyes.

Montmorency's heart melted like scented candle wax, she had just caught Louise in a terribly embarrassing moment. "Ok, I believe you, go do whatever you were doing. And next time, _don't_ carry that perfume with you _outside_ , okay?" Montmorency gripped Louise's hands more tightly to deliver her point. In return Louise winced. "The teachers can't know I'm making this stuff, it's technically illegal for unmarried nobles to have. Some law put in place by Cardinal Mazarin. You keep my business secret, and I'll not tell the school about your blunder. Am I crystal?" Montmorency's glare burned this close.

"I understand with clarity." Louise acknowledged her and the vice on her hand released. Thanking them both profusely for keeping this quiet, Louise then made a beeline to her room for a change of clothes. She wouldn't be caught dead with the perfume's scent on her in front of Count Mott.

Meanwhile, Reynald asked, "What's so special about that perfume anyway?"

Montmorency looked to Guiche with trepidation, and Guiche looked back at Montmorency with pleading eyes not to leave this to him.

* * *

Osmond sighed in relief when he received the telepathic update from his loyal friend. Louise had escaped that unfortunate but hilarious circumstance and would be ready to deal with Count Mott. Her Majesty's messenger had been an inconsolable brat upon finding he had sold Siesta to a much higher bidder. He didn't want him to go find her while Louise left her unguarded, but that wasn't an issue now. He was tired of holding this shit to stop it from hitting the fan.

"Count, if you must be so persistent, the one who purchased the maid you're after was a student named Louise, she's our only pinkette in the school, she should be easy to find. If you're interested in her maid, I'm afraid you'll have to speak to her. Now, it shouldn't be too hard to-"

The door slammed as Count Mott glided out of his office. 'How rude. This definitely won't be going well.'

* * *

Louise was now in a fresh uniform courtesy of Siesta, and finally about to head up the central tower when Count Mott erupted from the entrance. Eyeing her Count Mott breathed out, "You, you are Louise. Am I wrong?"

Louise steeled herself, "Yes, and you must be Count Mott." Venom leaked from both of their voices, neither bothering to put on a noble's facade.

Count Mott stood tall, "I believe you recently purchased a servant I had already put in a request for. I will forgive you sniping my purchase in exchange for letting me take the maid for the price you paid for her."

Louise glared at the Count. "No, I have no interest in selling Siesta. You'll have to look elsewhere for a servant."

Mott grimaced, "Then I'll offer you-"

"No! I won't accept any barter from you. This discussion is over." Louise stood firm.

The Count was not done however. He snorted, "I'll have you know, I am one of her Majesty's top messengers. If you don't agree to a reasonable trade, I'll bring this to her."

This was one game that Louise was born into. "Do you know who I am though, Count Mott?" Mott merely furrowed his brow. "I am Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallierre, daughter of the Duchess Vallierre, the Heavy Wind. I am the crown princesses' childhood friend, and second cousin1. You can't pull influence with the royal family against me. Besides, I'm sure Henrietta would love to hear all the details of your intentions for Siesta"

Mott realized he just stepped into a minefield, with the only way out being to give up his pursuit of that maid. This infuriated him. What were the odds that someone so well connected would block his way out of nowhere. He resisted the urge to pull his wand on her. That would only make things worse for him, and he refused to stoop to the low of threatening students. He had his standards after all. "Fine, you've won for now, but know this. I'm certain you've broken a law of commerce, and I'll be building a case against you once I find which one."

Louise laughed, "As if you could find a judge that'll side with you over me. You'd have to explain why you are so interested in Siesta, and no gentlemen would side with you then."

That tore it, Mott grabbed his wand, and immediately felt the tip of a staff at the back of his neck. Osmond had followed him.

"I'm afraid I can't condone people threatening my students. Count Mott, please leave my academy with haste, or incur the due consequences of your actions."

Count Mott quickly sheathed his wand, "Certainly, I have nothing left here anyhow." Mott left in his carriage at peak efficiency mentally berating himself for drawing his wand and was gone with the crack of a whip.

Louise realized what could have happened had Osmond not intervened and stopped herself from hugging the pervert. Their height difference would make it all the worse. Instead she bowed to Osmond thanking him for his help.

Osmond smiled back, "Just doing my job Miss Valliere. It's a shame that I don't get hugs from cute girls for doing these things anymore. I guess you know too well how much I'd appreciate that."

Louise grit her teeth, "Don't push it, I would normally be berating you for that if it weren't for your help just now."

Osmond raised his hands in surrender, "Didn't mean anything deviant by it this time, I swear. In my eyes, you're more innocent girl than grown woman."

Darkness gathered around Louise with that comment, and the Headmaster carefully backed off. "What is that supposed to mean!?" Louise drew her wand to strike and Osmond was already half way up the tower.

* * *

Elsewhere in the castle, Tabitha was writing notes to Kirche as the two planned by candlelight.

* * *

1\. As Louise is the daughter of a Duke and played with Henrietta as a child it is likely she would be closely related, this will be important later for plot reasons.


	10. Chapter 10

**So for all of you who feel tortured by all the embarassament Louise has been going through, you'll be glad to know this is the last big hurrah for that arc of the story. Things will be getting a touch more serious now, and the jokes won't be chapter long goliaths for a long while. The littler jokes will be hopefully growing in variety but still remain though. The mystery of what happened because of Shenron will be addressed soon hopefully, I thought I'd do it sooner just like you, and I don't know what went wrong.**

 **In other news, I may have to leave you hanging on the 19th of November (I'll be back at it by the 26th if that is the case though) as College and work are draining my time and my backlog of rough drafts that I polish each week is losing chapters faster than it is gaining. Making the rough drafts into something fit to call a chapter is the hardest part but is not inhibited by writer's block so I always write the rough drafts first so I remain steady with my writing of this story.**

Chapter 10: Raiders of the Dragon's Loli

Guiche was happy. Over the course of the last week he had greatly improved his relationship with Montmorency. After finding only himself to blame for driving a stake through Montmorency's heart, he decided amends needed to be made.

So, he promptly ditched the first-year student who he had been leading on and went to assemble an apology gift.

After stumbling upon one of Monmon's business deals, yes, he knew what she dealt in, they had a long conversation about their relationship.

A while back, when they were first engaged by their parents, the two of them had promised to give each other a chance to try being with someone else, just enough to know what that was like. In the present day, it seemed Monmon was done with that, citing that Guiche had plenty of experience outside of people like her. So, Guiche agreed, and he immediately found himself working hard to not break his promise of not seeing other girls. It was tough, but Guiche quickly discovered that the easiest way to deal with this was to be with Montmorency more. As a bonus, this greatly improved Monmon's mood.

As it was Monmon had stopped flirting with guys a long while back. Now she was ready to accept their betrothal for what it was and wanted no contest for Guiche's heart. Guiche was now figuratively searching for the long-lost lock and key to his heart to give to Montmorency.

The step up in intimacy was another great boon too. Additionally, not spending so much time chasing tail saved him a lot of stress and energy. Hell, he even fit in spell practice he had been slacking on. Honestly, Guiche wondered why he didn't think this up and suggest it to Montmorency himself.

A bit of him also was realizing how his change of nature would affect his brothers in arms. By not being such an open man, he would be giving his friends a better shot with some of the girls. Though he never went for Louise, he'd never be caught with a zero like her, Reynald was already making progress with her. Even if both protested it now, vehemently and excessively. Saying things like, 'We just bumped into each other for two Elfin' seconds Guiche!' and, 'I'll have you drawn and quartered if you keep speaking down on me like that!' Ah, young love.

Then again, there had been rumors about the Zero making moves on the other girls and the other girls making moves on her. That made him wonder who Louise was after. There had to be a magical artifact somewhere out there for that. 'Note to Guiche, ask Reynald and or Tabitha about love showing artifact. Bonus, I can use it to prove my love for Monmon if she ever grows doubtful.'

Guiche's thoughts travelled to what he had been doing with Monmon in her bedroom this week, and what he could push for in the next few months if he played his cards right. 'It's good to be settling in with someone.'

Then he passed a group of first year girls who were definitely eyeing him, and his heart panged to go to them. Instead, he smiled and waved, and was on his way like a broken pane of glass pretending to be fine when the wind could send it shattering. He let out a deflating breath. The temptation would be killer for the next few months at least. Old habits die hard he guessed. 'Time to give Monmon another visit, she did say something about brewing a special potion together.'

* * *

Louise walked into her room only to be swept up in a hug, and quickly set back down. Siesta bowed to her, "Thank you for your help Miss Valierre. Is there anything special I can do for you to show my appreciation for what you have done for me?"

Louise thought for a second. At first, she wanted to say it was all fine, but with Siesta offering she felt she had to do something. "I think you can have the night off to celebrate if you want. Get some rest though, I plan on heading to town tomorrow to get some things."

Siesta curtsied and left Louise for the night. Louise started filing through all the problems in her head: her familiar was missing without a trace, she had a familiar rune on her hand, she needed to practice her magic, by now the whole school would be convinced she was either dating someone or involved in deviant practices, all because embarrassing situations had been following her like so many lost puppies. She needed to proactively take measures against being embarrassed in the future. That would start tomorrow. Then she could make sure that none of the laundry list of things that happened this week would get out. 'Fat chance with Kirche and Montmorency being privy to nearly half of them though.'

Sighing Louise pulled out her wand and looked at the mirror. "Lucerna" she whispered to herself. A flame leapt up obediently and her forehead glowed orange with a rune. 'Don't forget about that. How in Halkeginia am I going to explain that?' Maybe Louise would invest in makeup. Normally she would only wear it for special occasions, makeup being a luxury even for nobles. Still, seeing magic at her fingertips would always be cathartic.

Yawning, Louise locked her door, and after a moment decided to bar her window too. Feeling more secure, Louise drifted to sleep, gloves on just in case. 'Let's see something happen to me now.'

* * *

Tabitha checked the moons, 'Yes, now is the ideal time.' She donned a mask that concealed her face. Kirche followed suit.

"Tabitha, why do you have these? We aren't stopping by a masquerade on the way to our mission, are we?"

Tabitha grunted, "Joseph's idea, less identifiable." Shaking her head, Tabitha pulled out a tactical wand and cast a spell to muffle their footsteps and other minor collisions. 'Mission Start.'

The duo creeped upstairs and detoured around a blissful Guiche making his way back to the boys' dormitories. Hiding in the middle of the adjoining hall was plenty to go unnoticed by him it seemed. Finding their destination, Tabitha tried the imposing oak door. 'Locked, switching to entry plan beta.'

Tabitha gestured to a nearby protrusion in the tower intended to facilitate gunners and archers defending the castle. Upon arriving there, Tabitha pointed her wand at a cross shaped hole which quickly expanded and folded brick work in upon itself. Jumping out, Tabitha quickly stood back up and looked to Kirche. Underneath her Sylphid quietly clung to the outer wall of the tower, thousands of individual scales shimmering like rain in the moonlight.

Kirche got on Sylphid without protest whom was now crawling to a nearby window. Once there, Tabitha tried to make an entry again, but the window had been locked. Clicking her tongue, Tabitha rubbed the head of Sylphid who took off in flight to above the tower in silent graceful spirals. In a moment they hovered over a dormant chimney. 'Interesting design flaw in these rooms.' Tabitha angled herself relative to the chimney and tensed her legs. With a short exhale she back flipped off Sylphid, casting another spell on herself as she entered the chimney, ash suddenly then lazily pouring upwards into the sky.

'What about me? How do I get in?' Kirche's thoughts were answered as Sylphid made her way back to the window. Hearing a click, she saw Tabitha stick her head out. They were in.

Joining up with Tabitha, Kirche stood in Louise's room, silent as a mouse. Louise was quietly slumbering in her bed. 'Like an adorable puppy! I need a painting of this.' Tabitha looked to Kirche, first she pointed to her mouth, then she brought two fists together before pulling them apart as though snapping a belt.

'Shit! I left that in my room!' Kirche panicked feeling her pockets and shaking her head no. She looked around the room and found two laundry baskets. Tabitha saw her move to them and quietly watched with understanding. 'So Kirche's the Sadist then?'

A larger basket held Louise's uniform and similar apparel, but to Kirche's delight, the smaller basket held only intimate apparel. She began to shift through the smaller basket, rolling fine pink and white fabrics over her foreign fingers. 'Wait, Louise actually bothers wearing bras? This one is even made to hold stuffing, hilarious.' She pulled out two pairs of panties, one of which laced up at the sides.

Tabitha nodded, and the tricky part of the operation began in earnest. The blue-haired infiltrator floated Kirche over Louise before gently setting her on the bed. Straddling Louise's unconscious form, Kirche slid the laced panties under her head, deftly balled up the other pair and slowly inserted them into Louise's mouth. Seeing she had successfully tricked Louise's body to start breathing from the nose with only a mild twitch, she tied up the makeshift gag and signaled to Tabitha.

Tabitha pulled out a small razor and reached for Louise's left hand, which as expected was covered with a glove. Sweat dripped from her forehead as she carefully picked at the glove's threads before slicing it off with precision.

Now Tabitha could see what she was after. Imprinted on Louise's skin was a rune, she quickly sketched it, but couldn't make out the scribble in the low light. Kirche noticed this and pulled out her wand. 'No, we talked about this, please belay that.' Tabitha shook her head no. 'But you need more light to see, and Louise didn't even notice us gag her, the doll.' Kirche in return gestured to Louise's mouth. 'Don't you dare, you know my mother is counting on this.' Tabitha shook her head again, eyes widening and piercing like needles into butter. 'I'm-a-do-it.' Kirche shook her head yes and took a slow breath in chilling as a soft breeze before a shear mountains gale. Suddenly, Tabitha was on the bed and grabbing Kirche's wand with one hand and covering Kirche's mouth with the other. Sweat beads threatening to drop from her skin like jingling icicles in spring.

Then someone shifted under them. Both intruders looked down to see Kirche was sitting on Louise's pelvis, and Tabitha was kneeling across both of her upper arms. Tabitha realized wearing a skirt for this may have been a gross miscalculation in defensive wear.

Louise woke up with a dry mouth and in complete darkness. She also felt very heavy and couldn't seem to move her arms or legs. She tried to sit up, but her forehead met something soft. Tabitha blushed and remained as still as possible, hopefully Louise would fall back asleep. "Whu, tuh huh?" Louise mumbled through her gag.

'Definitely awake! Abort operation immediately!' Tabitha grabbed Kirche by the collar to get them off the bed. Kirche was able to quickly bolt for the window, but Tabitha met complications in evacuating second. Louise began to struggle and yell through her gag, giving Tabitha a powerful head-butt from below. 'Oof!' Tabitha managed to hang on and thought fast.

She couldn't let Louise see them escaping. She hadn't yet only because of her skirt covering Louise's head and effectively blinding her. Fortunately, they wore the same size and the skirts were standardized. 'Nothing to identify me by.' Tabitha dropped her skirt, jumped off, and wrapped it quickly around Louise's head. Louise flailed about as Tabitha jumped through the window diving parallel to the floor and onto Sylphid. Thus, they disappeared to another part of the academy before Louise could properly react.

Jumping into a riding position was another mistake on her part. She winced with tears boiling up but not over, 'That'll be sore for a while.' Kirche was doing her best not to stare at her friend.

However, she couldn't avoid making a remark. Smiling she quipped, "White and frilly, but also simple. You know those are more appropriate for someone half your age, right?"

Sylphid entered a powerful corkscrew, and Kirche was less verbose than Tabitha for the rest of the night.

Meanwhile Louise was now looking out the window while furiously picking at the double knot in her panties. Someone had broken into her room, rifled through her laundry and would have done unspeakable things to her had she not given them a head-butt to the groin. Fury roiled like rapids and ran hotter than lava inside her.

The worst part was that she didn't see so much as a finger of them, as they had wrapped one of her skirts around her face. She swore whoever did this would be crushed, shredded, then immolated for this. All she had to go on though was that they would be walking funny tomorrow. 'Serves them right!'

Finally undoing the double knot, Louise spat out the gag and took greedy breaths of air. 'I need someone to keep watch over me. I'm not safe now. Siesta won't do, it was probably a mage if they jumped out the window, and Siesta can't deal with that. I can tell some of the teachers what happened, but I want someone who can stay by my side. That leaves only one person I can trust to not tell anyone about this. I just have to put aside that awkward moment from before when I ask. I'll have to see if Tabitha will be willing to help guard my room… I can trust her.'


	11. Chapter 11

**Posting this at a reasonable time for once, yay. Anyways, I've got limited experience with people suffering traumatic events of Louise's nature, so I hope you bare with me and my limited realism in that aspect. Normally I PM people over their reviews but you all should hear this. Thank you Story Weaver1 for your compliment, my biggest aim with writing stories is to flesh out concepts that havent been tried in fanfiction thoroughly, or give a unique twist to things that have. (What would happen if characters landed in another story but not ontop of the protagonists for instance, or what if they were significantly different in age to them as opposed to miraculously being all within a year of eachother.) Making plots I can do, putting them to paper without getting sidetracked and losing detail is another. There's nothing more boring than a story being repeated with new window trimming. Hopefully my story will be setting sail away from the canon timeline by chapter 20.**

 **One week hiatus still on the horizon. Enjoy this chapter though.**

Chapter 11: Comparing Swords

"This is unacceptable, I want to find who did this and punish them now!" Louise stomped on the oaken floor of the Headmaster's Office.

"I'm afraid you'll have to wait for your justice Miss Valliere. We will be posting spare guards on your floor and will be checking with any nearby towns for suspicious activity around last night. We'll also be checking the boys' dormitories for evidence should any appear suspect. We simply don't know whodunit, and until then we must wait."

Louise smoothed her hair that had started to electrostatically frizz with anger. "I know, I just can't believe this happened. The worst part is my left glove went missing. Which means whoever it was knows my secret now. Plus, sleeping in general is going to be an ordeal, I can already tell, I've been a ball of nerves whenever I've been by myself."

Osmond leaned back and stared skywards, gazing past the ceiling. "This is so troublesome, to think such a scoundrel would attack our fair academy. If it was Miss Longueville, we would have seen something about your rune in a letter, but she seems to have been under normal operations or looking for that nonexistent lock. Tying up enemy agents is such fun. Unfortunately, this was the work of an unknown actor, so odds are we'll have to wait for rumors or a second strike depending on their motives for the infiltration." Osmond fiddled with a wand in his hands rolling it with mild agitation.

Louise slouched into her chair, and groaned, "My troubles seem unending, should I even go out shopping today? I don't know if I'm ready to defend myself. I've performed only a couple hundred or so spells since I got my magic working."

Osmond smiled at Louise's initiative. It was good to know she was still working as hard as ever to improve her magical prowess. "I dare say you need a good shopping trip, get your mind off this tragedy. Colbert is willing to free up his day to provide an escort if you wish. Normally we would send our regular security personnel, but with your assailant likely being a mage, only another mage would be proper accompaniment. Anyhow, go have a good day shopping. Go buy some new gloves, enjoy a rare fruit, maybe even get fresh panties."

Louise glared at Osmond who dodged on instinct, Louise's wand leveled at where he had just been sitting. Readjusting his tussled hat, Osmond responded, "Not in the mood for those kinds of jokes today. I understand, my apologies." He raised his hands in surrender.

Louise sighed, "You got that right." 'Though replacing those undergarments from last night is a definite to do.' Standing up, Louise nodded to Osmond, "If Colbert-sensei comes with then a day of shopping it is I guess. Anything to get me away from here for the day should be good." She groaned into a sigh and started heading out.

"Miss Valliere, there's one more thing I'd like to do today."

Louise twirled back around, skirt whiplashing around her legs, "Did you learn something about my rune?" She marched back to the desk.

Osmond reached into a drawer, rummaging for something metal. "No, but I do have an experiment in mind." He fished out a small, silvered key and stepped to a wardrobe. "Gandalfr was said to be a master of weapons. I wonder what will happen..." He popped open the wardrobe to reveal a set of spell-swords and elementally attuned armors. "... if you were to wield a magic sword." He set a sheathed and wrapped sword in her hands.

Louise felt the weight of the saber in her hands. She unwrapped the cloth admiring the dually functional and decorative rune of Wind simultaneously embossed out and etched into the sword, gold melding into iron from where it was inlaid. She wielded it, her first sword. It was heavy enough to almost unbalance her with a blade length of nearly three feet that Louise's arm gently swayed to keep it upright. Though awkward to carry with her meager muscle mass, something deep in her blood felt right holding it. The history of Halkeginia seemed to flow through her with each breath, and she set the flat of the blade on her shoulder. "Headmaster! I-"

"That's a shame. Doesn't seem to have panned out, so you can give me that sword back." Louise's rune hadn't so much as flickered. She handed the sword back, and Osmond put it away. A little part of Louise that was born today shriveled up like a grape in the sun, and then buried itself in the bottom of Louise's mind.

"Are you sure? I thought I felt something happening." Louise's hand clenched and unclenched for want of another blade.

"Yes, it seems you do not have Gandalfr's power. Your rune didn't glow, and you were struggling to hold the sword as is. I could tell you are a sucker for a good weapon though. Wouldn't surprise me with your lineage, daughter of the cutting Heavy Wind that you are. Now go have a good day of shopping."

Leaving the office after saying goodbye, Louise was wondering if they made spell-daggers, or maybe short wand-swords that she could wield. 'Mom might know more about that, after I see her again and show off my magic I can suggest that as a gift or something.' Her hand still twitched like a dying animal gasping for a breath, or a sword.

Looking through the main hall, Louise spotted Siesta waiting on her. Right, all sorts of plans are changing. "Siesta, I'm afraid after what happened last night, I won't be taking you to town with me. I have an important mission for you instead." Louise motioned for a huddle, and Siesta brought her ear to Louise's lips. She whispered, "I need you to keep an eye out for anyone walking funny today, I got one of my assailants from below. Also, I want you to sleep with me tonight, okay?"

Siesta backed up and bowed deeply, "I won't fail you. The monsters who did this will be brought down. You enjoy your day Madame." Siesta set off in a march to start her just mission and Louise made for the front gate.

Colbert had already prepared two horses for them, "I assume you're ready now Louise?" Louise nodded, and Colbert boosted her onto the horse. "While the day is young then." Thus, they were off to the nearest major town.

* * *

Nothing much occurred on the trip to town and Louise was now perusing vendors by herself, right handed glove over her left hand. She had most of what she needed when she saw a small crowd of commoners surrounding a petty noble of some variety.

"Hear ye all, the Great Dragon of Halkeginia has blessed us with his presence and promised eternal darkness if we do not acknowledge his divinity. We must prove ourselves worthy beings and erect a statue in his honor. Lest he eat the sun and cause eternal famine and winter. I need all able bodies to come with me to the quarry-" he went on, but Louise tuned him out and wrote him off as a crazed loon, surely a Romalian Inquisitor would put him in his place for his blasphemy soon enough.

Louise had everything she originally set out to get now, and had one last extra thing to get, a spell-sword. Something told her she wanted to practice with a sword in addition to her magic. She didn't have much gold left after today's shopping and purchasing Siesta. So, she was looking for a training blade, as her mom may give her a better blade if she learned quickly. Getting a cheap spell-sword was tricky business though, spell-swords were rare instruments of war that were normally made special by master smiths working in tandem with triangle class mages. The odds she'd find one that was just 'good enough' were very slim. At least she was in the right district, swords were literally spilling out of one of the stores.

"Hey partner! Don't pass this store up! I've been dying to see you again!" Louise ignored the obvious ploy of one of the merchants who wouldn't carry spell-swords and kept moving. "Wait! You're going the wrong way! Don't leave me here to rust!" There was a rattling of metal, then the sound of a barrel tipping and spilling its contents on the ground. 'What's with all these swords spilling everywhere? What are we preparing for war?' In her throne room Henrietta sneezed into her new handkerchief.

"Please! It's been at least 500 years since I last saw you Gandalfr!" Louise turned back around at that. 'How the hell would this person know about Gandalfr. Maybe they're in league with my assailants from last night!' She stormed back to the entryway of a store to see a haggard merchant trying to right his barrel of swords. He set it up again, but the rustiest sword of the lot kept bouncing in place of its own free will.

Losing her previous train of thought and boarding the next thought train going who knows where, she asked, "What's wrong with that sword?"

The merchant shifted gears into a hard spin, "It's a magic sword, it can even talk. After a bit of polishing you'll find no better sword! Are you interested?"

"Talking sword? That's ridiculous."

There was a rusty cough, "I'll have you know I'm only ridiculously good at telling jokes, partner."

Now Louise was staring gob smacked at the sword. She thought talking swords were the stuff of Brimiric fairy tales. Looking at her gloved hand she decided that those might not be as much fairy tales as embellished history. "Well, it's not what I was looking for, maybe I'll come back if I don't find something better.

"Don't leave me here partner! I'm begging you! I'm your destined weapon after all!"

The merchant ignored Derflingr and quickly interjected, "You can have this sword for ten Écu if you buy now!" 'Crap Mortimer, you not only low balled, but made yourself sound desperate, there's no way you'll sell that infernal sword now! She can probably tell there's something wrong with him. When's the next time you'll be able to sell a sword that no one can wield?'

Louise hid a smile, she could tell she was getting a discount. She was expecting to spend at least 50 Écu on a sword, but this would work. She drew the talking sword, a tad heavy in her hands and it showed. "That seems fair, I think I'll take you up on that. If this sword doesn't pan out, then I can still look for another."

'You'll never get another chance like this don't haggle up, that always ends a sale. Wait, I've got an idea!' "Okay, but how about this for another 20 Écu I'll also polish the sword first." 'Come on, take this and I might make a profit on this junk sword.'

Louise thumbed her chin while Derflingr muttered about being looked at like a fourth-rate weapon. Louise had no idea that polishing a sword should be only a single Écu, so she went for the deal. "Excellent, here's the thirty then. I'll be back when the sword is ready." She handed Derflingr to the merchant who stopped sweating and took Derflingr into the back.

"I'll finally be rid of you, you useless hunk of metal. Good riddance indeed."

Derflingr tweaked his rusty jaw once more, "At least I get a good polishing before I go down as the cheapest legendary sword ever sold, haha. You really screwed up." The merchant scowled pulling out his polishing kit and tied Derflingr's flapping guard down to shut him up.

* * *

Jean Colbert calmed his racing heart when he saw Louise coming out of one of the alleys in one piece. He was supposed to guard her, but how could he do that if she disappeared half way through the trip! Most confusingly, she seemed to be coming out of the commoners' weapons market.

"Louise! Where have you been? I can't guard you if you run off. I thought you wanted a proper escort after what happened last night."

Louise paled briefly, "You weren't behind me just a moment ago? And I was waltzing around this part of town." Louise sighed, "I guess I just got caught up in the shopping and forgot about everything else. Anyhow, I got some new gloves, and I'll be getting a spell-sword soon to." Louise flaunted her new white mage's gloves. Inlaid metal around the wrists glinted in the sun.

"Louise, whatever possessed you to buy a spell-sword? I don't think you've physically matured enough to even wield one yet." Louise eyed Colbert at the unintentional implication he made. "Why the sudden interest in swords though? You're still adapting to having magic, shouldn't you be focusing on improving that?"

Louise smiled softly, "Earlier today Osmond handed me a sword to see if I had Gandalfr's power since I bear the rune. Despite not having a sudden mastery of swords, something just felt right about holding a magic weapon like the one he gave me. Something in my blood just felt right."

Colbert paled, and sweat beaded by his temples. 'So, she inherited more than just Karin's hair. My life just got even more complicated then.' Colbert swallowed the dead air in his throat, "When will you be getting this sword? How did you afford one for that matter? You only brought enough coin for a mediocre sword of that variety, and you've already spent so much today."

Louise laughed gently, "I found a merchant who was trying to get rid of an old one that'll be good for practice I suppose. I wasn't going to get a high caliber sword immediately." A shout of confusion and disgust came from a nearby sword shop.

"How does metal sneeze!" drifted in on the wind.

Colbert ignored the odd claim on the wind. "One more thing, did you hear that one man preaching earlier?" Louise shook her head in the negative. "It seems that a cult is forming revolving around the worship of your dragon. However, none of them seem to have spotted him since your summoning day. If we find a concentration of these people away from the academy we may have a lead on your absent familiar's whereabouts."

That might be worth looking into, but what were the odds of this cult actually finding her dragon? Louise hummed out a, "Good to know, we can look into that later." as she mulled this over.

"Anyways, it seems a good time to head back though." The sun was already kissing the top of a bell tower warm colors.

Louise nodded and started with Colbert towards the cities' stables.

"Wait! Hold on!" A merchant ran towards them carrying a hastily wrapped object. Moving in front of the duo, he all but shoved his package into Louise's arms. "Madame, the sword you ordered has been polished, and is now your bur _den_. **I mean** privilege to own." He bowed sharply before taking a step back.

Louise was astounded, "How did you polish your sword so quickly? It was as rusty as an artifact when I saw it earlier."

The merchant stood at his full height, "I was a bit eager to finish your request and was able to rub all the rust out in record time. Besides, no one's quicker with swords than me. Thank you for your purchase today, and if you ever need your sword polished come to me, I'll give you a fair price."

A muffled chortling emanated from the package. Louise ignored that and said, "Thank you Monsieur, I'll be sure to come to you for any future services. I bid you a good day, so you may return to your shop." So, the merchant thanked her again and left.

"If you don't mind Louise, I'd like to have a look at your sword when we get back to the academy." Colbert eyed Louise's package saying this.

"Certainly Professor."

A muffled guffaw ebbed into intermittent giggles all the way back to the castle.

* * *

 _If you give a Valliere a sword..._


	12. Chapter 12

**First off I apologize for the delayed upload, and for the next chapter being set back a week. College and work are real time eaters and the end of the semester approaches with more work accompanying it. Furthermore, this is the first chapter I've posted where the next chapter hasn't even entered the rough draft stage. I look forward to being able to consistently deliver chapters minutes before midnight every Monday in the future, but reliable uploads are out the window until mid-December for now.**

 **However delayed, enjoy this chapter.**

Chapter 12: Playing with Her Sword

Upon returning to the academy Louise immediately made her way up to her room with Siesta dragging everything she had purchased behind her. With a mighty heave, Siesta dropped her load on the bed, burying Derflingr in the process, much to his inaudible protests.

Noticing Siesta had made it up, Louise verified the hall was clear and locked the door. "What do you have to report Siesta? Did you figure out who it was?" Louise was on her toes with anticipation.

For her part, Siesta bowed her head in shame, hands nervously fiddling with her apron. "I'm afraid none of the boys were acting strangely today. Not so much as a limp or one of them sitting gingerly." She looked up with more confidence now, "If you let me have more time, I might find something yet. Even Osmond couldn't find anything when he searched the boys' dorms! Please forgive me." Siesta bowed deeply.

Louise let out a deflating sigh. "I shouldn't have expected much more than this, for all I know the fiends have already fled the country. Your efforts are appreciated though." Louise laid into her bed with her arms draped over the edge and past her head. "I don't know how I'll feel safe sleeping tonight. I remember locking all the entrances, yet they got in anyhow. I would feel better if you could watch me, but what would you do against a pair of mages? I know the staff will be increasing the guard, but I'd feel much better with someone who could protect me more personally." Louise began to frown at her sentiments. They felt like gravel in her teeth, grinding and grating at her sense of self. 'Where's my steel gone? Have these past few days really worn me down so much that I'm no better than a frightened child?' Louise raged at that thought, she couldn't break now! She wouldn't give in to being some timid helpless child. She had endured months of ridicule by her peers while being incapable of the simplest spells. She wouldn't show weakness now that she had her magic!

Siesta watched as Louise started to simmer over her thoughts. "Maybe you could invite some of your friends to sleep with you for the night? At least having a couple of extra mages with you might worry your assailants out of returning."

Louise focused back onto Siesta. "It isn't that I'm worried whoever broke in last time will come again. I'm doubtful it was one of the boys studying here. Frankly, most of them wouldn't have the gall to do something like that, and the few who do are smart enough not to risk trying it. I'm just on edge after everything that's happened this week. It's like I'm the butt of the universes' jokes, and someone keeps raising the ante asking for more." She deflated further and appeared much more the kid than the noble she was, and muttered, "What I need is someone who could watch out for me and give me a little warning whenever Brimir feels like pulling my panties down."

There was a pause before Louise flinched like a cat doused in water. "N-n-n-not like I would suggest our good, kind, and gracious Lord Brimir would even wish that upon someone!"

Siesta smiled and feigned pulling some gunk out of her ear. "Oh, I'm sorry Madame, but I must not have heard whatever you just said about our good Brimir." She finished with a playful wink that elicited a minute chuckle from Louise.

That's when the pile of gloves and miscellaneous things hit their critical point and fell off the bed after having been slowly shaken to the edge.

"I CAN BREATHE!" Clanking metal echoed through the chamber. Shocking the daylight out of a now much more black and white Siesta.

"How's it talking? It must be possessed by a demon!" Siesta made to grab Louise and bolt out of the room but was shut down by Louise.

"Don't panic Siesta! It's just an enchanted sword, it's not possessed by a demon. It's just an extremely rare sword. Please calm down." Siesta's rapid breathing slowly ebbed, and she grabbed at her heart while Louise held her shoulder.

"If you're done throwing a tizzy, I'd like to say that I might be able to help." Derflingr clinked out trying to right himself as best a talking sword could.

Louise blinked owlishly back at him, "What kind of problem could you possibly help me with? I just got you to practice my swordsmanship and spells. You're a training sword, right?"

"TRAINING SWORD!?" Derflingr rattled across the floor setting Siesta on edge again. "Don't you recognize me at all partner? At least tell me you've read about the Legendary Sword Derflingr!"

Louise thought for a quarter of a minute. "Nope, doesn't ring a bell. But you're saying your name is Derflingr then? And why do you keep calling me partner?"

The metal groaned. "You see Gandalfr,"

"How do you know about Gandalfr by the way?"

Derflingr grit his guard in irritation. "That's because I'm your sword, partner. I've been Gandalfr's sword and partner through the ages."

Louise furrowed her brow, "Okay, but I'm not Gandalfr, I'm supposed to be Gandalfr's master."

There was a silence lasting for four heartbeats. "WHAT?! I can feel your rune on your left hand! What are you on about?"

Louise looked to both Siesta and Derflingr, "You don't tell anyone about this understood?"

Derflingr responded, "If you say so." While Siesta merely nodded her head. Louise carefully removed her left glove to reveal her rune like a blemish on her skin. She lowered her hand to Derflingr's hilt where she assumed his equivalent of eyes were.

"Does this look normal to you? I was branded with this when I tried to summon my familiar almost a week ago, and I don't appear to have any mastery of weapons granted to me. If you were Gandalfr's sword then you should be able to give us some valuable insight."

Now seeing Louise's rune for the first time, understanding dawned on Siesta, 'That's what we've been researching!' Derflingr gawked, "What happened to your rune?! It's being gobbled up by the bigger one! What kind of off the books summoning did your master try to perform?"

Derflingr could feel killer intent directed at him now, "What part of 'I tried to summon' don't you get!? I'm my own master, and probably the void mage who's supposed to summon your partner!"

The sword shrunk imperceptibly as a chill ran over him. "My apologies. In the meantime, let's get to the bottom of this together. Pick me up and try taking a swing with me. That'll help me feel out what's wrong with your rune."

Louise nodded, "Okay, Siesta stand back a little. I'm going to swing left and I don't want to hit you with my sword." Siesta dutifully got behind a desk to take cover. Louise reached down and firmly grasped onto Derflingr's hilt, feeling the weight and texture of him. It was much different holding him now that he had been thoroughly polished. With a mild heave Louise pointed her sword skyward and suddenly he began to shrink. Without the rust coating him from before, Derflingr lost 6 inches in length to better accommodate Louise. For her part Louise was falling in love with the new size and weight of her sword, her center of mass was no longer threatening to tip her over with a wide swing.

Then swing she did. Though clumsy and not directed at anything, it was cathartic feeling sharpened metal cut the air. She brought Derflingr back to a resting position, the sword glistening in the late afternoon sun that had just appeared in the window.

Derflingr hummed, "It seems you are Gandalfr, and yet Gandalfr's master at the same time? Even stranger, all the magic in your rune seems to be projected to it from a long ways away and reflecting back off again to wherever it came from. You can't use the power of God's left hand because it is only really bouncing off you like you're some kind of mirror. Meanwhile, you've got that bigger rune powering a cavalcade of functions I can't even feel out! Finally, that swing was total garbage, Miss Void."

That was a lot to start processing, so much that Louise nearly missed the insult at the end. "Hey! That was my first time taking a swing, so you know. I'd like to see you do better."

"..."

"..."

"I'll get right on that. Now before we get off track again, I'd like it if you wouldn't refer to me as a training sword, as much as you need the training. My name is Derflingr and I'd appreciate it if you referred to me as that instead." Louise bit her lip subtly and nodded. "Okay, I'll do that." Derflingr picked back up, "Back to the beginning then, I'd like to let you know I've got your back, Void Mage. Whether it be on the battlefield or stopping you from stepping in it as you were moaning about earlier."

Louise, though flattered by this sentiment, didn't see how Derflingr could help her. "As kind as that is, what exactly can you do to help me? You are just a sword after all."

A steel hinge flung wide open in astonishment. "Why lass, I don't ever sleep, I can keep an eye out for you day in and day out if you just ask. Besides, there is no one better at teaching the art of sword handling than I."

Louise let that thought click in her mind. "That's wonderful, but why did you word it as the art of sword handling? Isn't the proper term swordsmanship?"

Metal tittered against steel, "Oh, I have my reasons."

The void mage was unsure what Derflingr meant to imply by that, but the last week taught her a lot. So, she proceeded to give her sword an interrogating glare to see if he would crack and explain himself. Unfortunately, Derflingr was a very resilient sword and wouldn't crack easily.

The youngest Vallierre leaned back into her bed, "Siesta, put everything away for me please, I have a lot to ponder over now." So, Siesta did so.

'My rune is bouncing magic back and forth from somewhere? That's probably my damn dragon's magic, but why is it sending it to me in the first place? More importantly, does this mean I can abuse this to find him? How many times would I have to swing my sword around to find him? Can Derflingr even tell what direction the magic is coming from? Can Derflingr actually teach me how to use a sword? How long until I can impale Zerbst? So many questions. How do I impale Zerbst with my sword without starting a war with Germania? Would Tabitha mind?' It would be worthwhile having her as a friend if Tabitha didn't act strange without warning again. Thinking of which, she still hadn't gotten around to inviting Tabitha over to keep herself company tonight and try to brush off that awkward moment they had last they met.

Lifting her legs up high before performing a quarter flip off her bed, Louise set out to find Tabitha. "I'm off to find Tabitha everyone, please behave yourselves while I'm gone."

Derflingr and Siesta remained silent at first. The first evening gust heralded the approaching night. "Are you sure we're the ones who need to watch their behavior partner? If anything shouldn't we come with you knowing your track record?"

Louise fumed, "You just met me, you can't know my track record, and I can handle walking around the academy on my own! You stay put and do whatever an enchanted sword does."

Derflingr seemed to sink into the bed he was currently set on. "So, don't move and act like a relic. I'll have you know I'm an expert at that. You go find your damn girlfriend."

With that Louise slammed the door catching her mantle in the jamb. This resulted in aggravated shouting before the door was opened and shut again.

"So, are you sure you're not a demon?"

Derflingr sagged further into the sheets Siesta was keeping him on. "This is going to be a long night."

 **As of right now I've noticed that Louise's only friends at the academy were literally bought by her. That's real depressing, but hopefully she'll fix that soon.**


	13. Chapter 13

**On time, yes! Anyways, I'm back with a new chapter length breaking chapter. I try to keep each one between 2000 and 3000 words of content as a rule and this one is roughly 2,998 words long. If all goes well from here on out the next hiatus won't be until after mid April all things considered and once summer comes only writer's block will be able to stop me. (Which I'm told is a real thing?) (;**

 **This chapter features my first attempt at a 'fight' scene, tell me what you think of that. Enjoy.**

Chapter 13: Slumber Party

Tabitha felt she would continue to regret her scouting operation last night for the remainder of her life. As much as she could justify it as progress towards healing her mother, she knew that her methods were excessive in the extreme. She didn't need to compromise Louise's sense of security to learn about that rune Louise had acquired. Worse, she hadn't even fully transcribed it in the poor light.

The worst part was that Louise had given her an open invitation into her room this night under the premise of a slumber party of sorts, (No Zerbsts Allowed). Though this was likely in reaction to her breaking in last night, it hurt her all the same that her efforts were so needless in the scheme of things. If she had put in a smidgen more effort into befriending Louise, a person who to her knowledge had so far only been able to purchase friends while at the academy1, she would've had all the opportunity she needed to get access to Louise's wish granting dragon, let alone the rune that served as her best lead. Having been so forward in trying to see Louise's hand before, she was certain she would never again want to have anything to do with her. 'That's what happens in all the books!' Yet here Louise was more than willing to befriend her without her having to lift a finger! 'This is mind boggling! How can someone so accustomed to social isolation like Louise so readily ask someone acting as strange as I was to be friends?!'

"Why?" Tabitha exhaled her regret and confusion.

Kirche laid down across Tabitha's lap and started fiddling with her hair. "Isn't it obvious? Little Lou is paranoid out of her poor little head after what we pulled. She just wants someone she thinks of as tough to play mama for her and keep the monsters away when she goes to bed tonight. Honestly, we thrust a bit too deep with our 'mission', didn't we? Louise normally is so tough when it comes to these things, but she's dropped a load of her pomp now." Tabitha nodded in reluctant agreement. "And it's all our fault, if we didn't get so greedy in reading Louise's new beauty mark she would've never known and wouldn't be all out of sorts."

Now Tabitha was glaring fire at Kirche. "What? Do you think this is my fault?"

"You tried to light up the room."

"In my defense we weren't getting anywhere with you reading in the dark. You already wear glasses dear, the extra strain on your eyes can't be good for them. I was only trying to help, you're the one who started sitting on Louise's face."

Tabitha promptly stood up, ejecting Kirche onto the floor in a heap.

"Getting ready, almost nightfall." With that Tabitha started searching for good books for a slumber party.

* * *

With a small stack of books in hand, Tabitha knocked on the door to Louise's dorm room. It was surprisingly immediately answered by a maid. "Hello, Miss Tabi-, oh I'm sorry, hold on a moment sir." With that the door was shut in her face with such force her glasses skewed. 'Sir? Why? What could have...?' The sound of Louise ranting garbled its way through the door. 'So, Louise is in her room despite the maid cleaning? I thought I came on time.' Tabitha looked out the window and sure enough it was only second moonrise.

Then the door was readily reopened by the maid. "Come in Tabitha, Louise has been expecting you. I'm sorry for any inconvenience I may have caused you." Tabitha could see nervous beads of sweat coalescing on the maid's face as she held the door wide open for her.

She stepped in and took stock of the room as she hadn't had time last time she was here. Aside from the standard furniture every dorm came equipped with and the fireplace exclusive to the top floor's rooms, Louise had had someone lay out a mattress and appropriate bedding for her. A newly shined sword leaned against the wall sitting atop a pile of hay sitting at the intersection of their beds. 'So, Louise didn't actually expect to summon a dragon, but rather something in line with a dog. That sword is out of place too. Louise has never shown any aptitude for the sword before.' Eyes wandering to the bookcase she noticed several extra tomes on top of the required texts. All of them on familiar rune translation, no surprise seeing those tucked away. Finally, a target tacked up to the wall was littered with what must have been a thousand singes, cuts, pockmarks, and water stains. 'How did she find the willpower to fire off that many spells? She's been out of the infirmary for less than half of a week.'

A snap, inches from her face, got her attention and a fraction away from launching a counter attack. "Hello, Tabitha, I know my room is an amazing example of what every noble should aspire to, but I need to ask you something if that's alright?" Tabitha gave a five-degree nod of ascent in return. "Okay, for Siesta's sake, could you... remove your mantle for us?"

An odd request, but this was a slumber party of sorts, and wearing an outdoor cloak in a bedroom was technically impolite. So, Tabitha handed her mantle to Siesta revealing her school uniform, which featured a skirt. To this, Siesta lost all jaw control and did her best to stop from sputtering nonsense.

'No way! She's worked here since I came to the academy! How could she not know? Am I really that... that... _androgynous_?'

Louise pushed through the fog of her thoughts shoving Siesta to a coat rack, and started, "So, what do you want to do first tonight? I have to admit this is my first time having a night with a friend in a long time." Tabitha forced herself to not look at Louise's gloved hand. 'Can I use this as an opportunity to remove that glove?' She raised a finger to give a suggestion, she had an idea. ' **STRIP POKER**! Wait! Abort! That's a horrible idea! Louise is a complete prude and is still shook up after last night! I need something innocent involving hands!' Tabitha opened her mouth, "Strip Patty-cake?"

Silence filled the room to the point only rattling metal could be heard. Tabitha's face rivaled high end sugar in whiteness. 'No... Louise was just letting me in. I can't believe I botched this with my first words here... There's no way I can recover this.'

Louise was facing away trying to get all the blood to drain from her face at such a lewd suggestion. 'I've had enough nudity for a lifetime thank you.' The silence continued. 'Oh Brimir, she probably said that by accident. Tabitha must be mortified. I've got to diffuse this somehow.'

Louise turned back to Tabitha, "Oh, I see you've been spending a bit too much time with Zerbst lately. Heh heh. Maybe we can start with something a little more typical, like a pillow fight?" Tabitha unpursed her lips in relief and nodded her agreement.

"Ok, Siesta can be the referee," Louise tossed one of her pillows to Tabitha, "and we'll begin on her mark." Louise picked up her own pillow and Siesta leveled her hand between the two.

"Ready? Begin!" Siesta jumped back while sending her arm skywards. Louise immediately took an aggressive stance and started circling Tabitha, whom stayed facing forward loosely hanging onto her pillow, her only movement in her eyes that tracked Louise.

"Um, Tabitha, you won't stand a chance if you don't try to fight back. Have you even played this before?" Louise slumped at Tabitha's expectable lack of energy.

Tabitha dawned a mild smirk in return that transcended the confidence of a cocky veteran, "Hit me then."

Louise picked up on Tabitha's challenge and puffed up, "Fair warning, I've gone toe to toe with royalty and won. I'm sure you don't know what you've gotten yourself into." Cotton immediately arced in from above at Tabitha with blurring speed. -Thump- With both hands holding her pillow like a quarter staff, Tabitha had blocked Louise's opening move and the game was on.

Louise stepped back moderately impressed by her still stationary adversary and started to spin her pillow like a flail. A streak from the upper left, then the lower right, blocked and parried respectively. The follow through gave an arc for the left flank, which Tabitha smiled at as she deflected it with her pillow made buckler. Louise in turn converted her weapon into a rapier and jabbed for the navel, but it only grinded past a vertical guard. Grabbing either end of her pillow, Louise now wielded a tower shield which she tried to ram into Tabitha yet was met thrust for thrust the defender unmoved.

Then Louise noticed Tabitha's stance was unusually wide. So, she descended into a crouch below her rival, giddy excitement at the compromising hit she was going to land. Unfortunately, her attempt at launching Tabitha skyward from below was quickly shut down by a lightning like strike from above. Louise was immediately pinned to the ground, head stuck between mattress and smothering enemy feather. Tabitha let out a deep breath. 'Not again, never again.'

"Point Tabitha!" Siesta declared from the sideline. "Come on! Show her what you've got Louise!"

Louise recomposed herself and shoved the offending mass of fluff off her and grabbed her pillow. "I'll get you for that Tabi-" the enemy pillow dropped back down like a hammer onto Louise's face. "Nn Fuhr."

"Point Tabitha."

Louise shoved off the preemptive bastard of a pillow and rolled to the side to avoid further punishment. She immediately saw streaking white cotton coming for thirds and reversed her roll to feel the wind off the impact intended for her. Thinking fast she used her pillow to aid in a somersault between Tabitha's spread legs and sprang back to her feet.

The bluenette was now wielding a pillow-claymore and slowly pacing towards her. Louise readied her guard and held her pillow like a pole mimicking Tabitha's opening defense. Feather filled death rushed Louise from all angles as she attempted to block the flurry. This managed to work until Tabitha started to conserve the momentum on her swings instead of dumping it into Louise's blocks. Only ever lightly brushing Louise's shield, she would pull back and redirect before each other blow would land, and Louise stood no chance.

-Pff- -tff- -tff- -tut- -tit-tit-a-tit- -poompf-

Louise was peppered relentlessly until Tabitha stepped back to catch her breath. "8 Points to Tabitha" Siesta calculated, "I know you can get a hit in Louise, think outside the box."

Louise did not want to end this without a clean hit, so she did the most unorthodox move there was in pillow fighting. She threw her pillow. Her hopes for a point sailed through the air on a lazy arc and promptly skipped off the defensive pillow Tabitha erected and fell dead on her unforgiving mattress. Her soft, cold, heartless bed that sat on the other side of Tabitha, with all the other pillows. Siesta face palmed.

Louise had no choice but to take a hit to reclaim her weapon now. 'What's one more point for Tabitha at this point anyway.' Louise dashed past Tabitha reaching for her only means of defense and was grabbed at the base of her neck from behind.

Tabitha threw Louise face first into her mattress, pulled her rear up, and suddenly her pillow was a paddle. Louise took in a deep breath and clenched her buttocks, she knew what was coming next.

"Surrender?"

"Never!"

Down came the pillow in a rapid succession of blows. Louise struggled, but was kept pinned by Tabitha's left hand. 'How is she so strong?'

"Point, point, point, point... Point!" Siesta could only watch through one half lidded eye at the merciless and painless beating being delivered to Louise's rump. -Thump- -Thump- -Thump- -Thump- -Thump- After about thirty mildly humiliating strikes Louise's spasming legs found her punisher's and Louise twisted with the force of a water mill.

Louise found herself the one on top now and greedily stole a pillow from her bed and bitch slapped her new plaything with it. "Point Louise! Don't go easy on her now!" Siesta rooted from the safety of the referee's corner.

Unfortunately, Louise didn't have the foresight to untangle her legs after her maneuver and had savored her only clean hit of the night. Tabitha counter spun dislodging herself from Louise and regaining the superior position. She quickly grabbed both of the readily accessible pillows dumped them over the Valliere's head and shoulders and dropped onto Louise in a sideways frog splash.

Struggle as she might, Louise could not escape the hypoxifying fluff enveloping her. "Surrender?" Tabitha echoed herself from earlier. Louise gave one last heave, arching her back until her skirt fell up. At which point she conceded and relaxed into the mattress, "Yuh wih."

Tabitha stood back up and helped Louise readjust her skirt as she sat up. "You're too good at this."

Siesta walked up to them both and lifted Tabitha's hand up high. "We have our winner by submission, Tabitha. With a final score of 'I lost track during the spanking' to one." Siesta then had the two shake hands before leaving to get refreshments from the kitchen.

Louise laid down into her bed, "What do you suggest we do now mighty pillow knight?"

Tabitha encountered a little grinding switching gears back into her plan. "Nightgowns? Can't sleep in uniforms." Low odds Louise would take off her glove with herself still present, but everything was worth a try.

Louise agreed easily enough, but surprisingly ushered Tabitha out of the room to change. 'The school has a communal bath we've been in together before. Is she really that sensitive even around someone like me now?'

* * *

Inside the room Derflingr whispered, "If I get a show like that every night, then I think I've found heaven."

"Shut up you perverted sword, I've already got enough perverted teachers, students, and mundane objects in my life already. Now don't look." Louise tossed her panties at him to cover his hilt.

"Oh, sweet partner, I think you've made a mistake. This blindfold of yours is practically transparent."

Louise put both hands to her tush and shot up onto her toes before looking over to Derflingr who happened to be unable to see anything. 'Damn lying sword.' "That was uncalled for, and you know it. Now give me time to change, I'm on the clock tonight." Derflingr snickered in the background as Louise finished up. 'Maybe throwing my panties at him is generally a bad idea if I don't want him to see anything. He couldn't have been trying to point that out though, right?'

* * *

In the next quarter hour, Siesta returned with tea and both nobles had changed into rather plain white nightgowns. Tabitha for her usual wear, and Louise keeping mind she had company tonight.

Louise was now under the sheets reading a mystery thriller to Tabitha and enjoying the company as she sipped her tea until Siesta took it away and retired for the night.

Tabitha had pointed out the strangeness of wearing gloves to bed but didn't make a fuss over Louise's cryptic and vague explanations for it.

Soon a candle went out and Louise called it a night, before locking her door and window. Noticing her fireplace, she stuck a tall metal spike in the middle just for excessive precaution and tucked into bed. Eyeing the poker, Tabitha rubbed gentle, soothing circles between her legs from under her sheets. She had not considered that possibility when she made her jump last night. She wished Louise a restful night and waited for Louise to drift into a deep, limp limbed sleep.

Once about an hour of silence had passed, she slid out of her sheets, the soft static of fabric on fabric filling her ears. She crouched next to Louise and reached over to grab her left hand once more.

Then metal creaked just as chillingly as in the book they had read earlier. "What are you up to now Princess de Galia?"

Her heart jumped into her throat, yet she put a hand to her mouth to stop from gasping in panic. 'How do they know that I'm that?!' She recoiled from the bed and scanned the room, but no person was there. Then it spoke again.

"My partner was worried someone was looking to see something they shouldn't. So, I've been keeping an eye on her. It's sad that her first friend she hasn't bought here had some ulterior motives, but that wouldn't surprise me."

Tabitha looked over to the sword. 'That's just ludicrous. How did Louise get an animated sword in a single day?' More importantly, "How do you know?" she hissed at him.

"That you're a royal? Be around as long as I have, and you can pick up on things like faces and specific hues of hair. You have Galian blue and the face to match. Now tell me, what are you after, and why. If it's good I just might keep both your little escapades secret as much as it would help Louise to know about them."

Tabitha's eyes widened more than they had ever before. He had her figured out, she had no choice. So, that night Derflingr learned Charlotte's secret and her desire to use the wish granting dragon to heal her mother behind Joseph's back. Derflingr creaked once more, "I see, your secrets are safe for now. Just let Louise take the lead in letting you in on her secrets from now on, capiche?" Tabitha nodded gravely, "I'm sorry." before laying down to try and sleep. Derflingr's sharpened metal now sitting like a razor against her conscience.

 **1\. Here I am counting all of Louise's friends at this point as Henrietta, Siesta, and Derflingr. Since Henrietta is not at the academy, all of her friends there have been bought by her. Sad huh?**


	14. Chapter 14

**Another chapter closer to the start of the dragonball hunt, (yes this is still a crossover) we'll get there... eventually? Anyways, I looked up Louise and Tabitha, and they apparently have canon measurements for clothing and Tabitha is almost a size smaller than Louise depending on the increments between each size. This chapter also features Reynald again. He'll be receiving a bigger role than background paint in this story because the only fleshed out male student at the academy is Guiche, and I need to fill a role so expect to see him developed a bit. If you made it this far, you must be having a good time, so enjoy.**

Chapter 14: Exponential Karma

" **GOOD MORNING LOUISE**!"

The penta-elemental mage woke to the sudden grinding of metal that was Derflingr moving his jaw. "Brimir's beard! That's much too loud! Why did you do that?" Looking around Louise could see Siesta hovering over her, slightly shocked by Derflingr's outburst.

Derflingr snickered, "Well, Siesta here wanted to baby you awake with a little nudge, so I put a stop to that and woke you up in a way more fitting of Gandalfr or a Void Mage."

Louise tensed as an angry viper would, "How would someone as important as a Void Mage merit being woken up like that?!"

Derflingr shrugged his guard, "You're like a soldier for Halkegenia now?" Derflingr held his poker face as best he could and being a sword, he pulled it off perfectly.

Louise hoisted her sword up into the air, shaking it around a bit. "You're a liar, you, useless hunk of metal. Tell me why you really ruined my morning!"

Derflingr steadied his nonexistent breath, "I thought it would be funny." He let out his faux-breath, "And it's been damn hilarious so far!" he cackled.

In response Louise unlatched and opened her window, grip tightening around Derflingr's sheath. "Wait, what are you doing partner?" She pulled her arm back aiming Derflingr like a javelin.

"I'm tossing you out, you lump of scrap iron!"

"Hold on Louise! Don't be rash now!" It was too late for Derflingr to bargain however; he had already left Louise's hand and started falling through the window. "You'll reeeegrrreeeet thhhhiiiiiiissssssssssss!" the sword echoed as he plummeted nearly parallel to the tower.

That he fell straight down was not surprising. Louise was a young girl, small for her age and a noble who had never needed to labor in her life, and Derflingr was a sword enriched with magically active and dense rare earth metals. That he only grazed the window sill on his way out was a miracle in itself.

Derflingr looked down, 'or a bad omen.' At the base of the tower, directly below Louise's window sat the familiar composting bin. Derflingr plunged into a week's worth of unmentionable matter until he was hilt deep. "No... I was just polished yesterday..." Derflingr moaned as Louise promptly forgot about him, dooming him to stew for founder knows how long.

* * *

Louise turned to Siesta, "So where's Tabitha?"

Siesta closed the window and turned back to Louise, "Oh, she left early to get ready for the classes today. You need to get ready yourself, you've already slept in past the start of breakfast."

Louise poked her stomach and it gave a displeased grumble in return. "Siesta. I need you to make quick work of my clothes pronto!"

Meanwhile, Tabitha strolled into her room sporting two skirts instead of one. 'It's good to have this back. Louise might have noticed my skirt is an inch or two smaller around her waist if she had a chance to put it on.'

* * *

The midday sun only added to Derflingr's misery as Louise's first day back in class was going on.

"Alright class, we'll be heading outside to practice fire spirals today. This will be important for when we start our section on magically heating potions, so focus on control especially."

Louise had been positively giddy throughout the whole morning waiting for a practical lesson. The extra makeup she applied to her forehead and lips should stop the runes from glowing through, so she had nothing stopping her from casting a glorious spell. She couldn't wait to shove her new-found proficiency with a wand down everyone's throats after all the taunting she had dealt with up until now.

The class approached a cleared patch of ground set aside for fire spell practice. "Okay everyone, line up and tell me what tier and variation of fire spiral you intend on casting. Then you can cast, and I will give you advice on your technique." Colbert drew a line in the bare earth and planted his staff waiting for the students to line up.

As usual, Louise went straight to the back of the line, but this time wearing a manic grin that drew the attention of Guiche and Malicorne whom were directly ahead of her. 'Why's the Zero so excited?'

The students started their practice, forming fire spinning like tops and discs and columns. Each varied from tiny three-inch-tall dot spells spinning with vigor to four-foot-tall lazy loops that lulled their way around in loose circles. Kirche attempted her first successful triangle spell which manifested as a fiery dust devil whipping up dust and drawing out into an increasingly thin column of ash and embers that matched the height of the academies' outer wall before being snuffed by a gentle breeze. A stunning set of scorch marks smoldered radially in waves from where she cast her spell. Kirche basked in the afterglow of her spell before turning to Louise with a coy smirk that read, 'You'll never be able to do that.'

Colbert congratulated her and moved the line along again dispelling the amazement of some of the students. Louise worried her lip as she thought about how she would top that. 'Kirche went tall and thin, so I'll go wide. Make fire fill everyone's view in as many directions as possible.'

The last student before Louise finished casting and after a comment from Colbert, joined the other students milling about nearby. This is when it was noticed Louise was about to try and everyone turned to watch her fail. 'Just like I planned.' Louise drew her wand with force causing her cloak to flair out as though she had just detonated something in front of her. "Professor, I'd like to try a line level fire disc." Audible snickering echoed like demons in her periphery, Louise had made sure they heard her, and they found it hilarious someone who'd never made a dot level spell before wanted to try a line level instead.

Colbert bent down to whisper in Louise's ear, "Are you sure you want to go that big already? Though you've shown a lot of talent since the incident, you've only been casting spells for a few days." Louise just nodded, a sudden stillness of the air making her features like that of a statue. "Okay then, give me a moment to step out of range. You're spell power tends to be dialed up to maximum."

Colbert straightened up again and paced a full 15 meters away from Louise which caused the crowd to grow wary. Normally teachers stood by Louise to lessen the impact of her nastier explosions. Malicorne let out a murmur, "He's just going to let the Zero eat her spell, will she be okay?" In response some less sympathetic classmates giggled pantomiming Louise's death.

Louise popped her lips to verify she had applied her makeup and began her chant, " _Ignis! Turben! Tenvis! Planus! Laxe!_ _ **Incombustium!**_ " Louise felt her forehead warm before striking at the sun with her wand. The onlookers braced out of habit and Colbert readied a counter spell.

The point of Louise's wand flashed once before five gouts of flame streaked out in a billowing blaze of crimson. Each reached out before being tugged back in and bending into their intended spiral accelerating and forming a consistent disc of heat and warm light. At its peak size the whirling disc reached 14 meters in diameter and whipped up a wind that buffeted her peers briefly. In a moment the disc slowed, and fire stopped surging out from the wand. Gravity was given reign over the flames and they fell like a blanket onto the ground breaking into smaller flames that danced trying to keep off the cool dirt. In the center Louise posed with her arms wide open, challenging any of the onlookers to deny that she had done that under her own power, to call her a zero one more time, to not be awed by her performance.

The paradigm shift that had just occurred was difficult for most present to adapt to. The zero not only performed a spell correctly, she dominated it. A majority could only stare at the darkened circle about Louise, or at the caster's smug face. Colbert gave an exasperated laugh at Louise's success and subsequent preening. Kirche froze, Louise had done the impossible, she had out 'bigged' her. Now she was happy to see Louise grow into a big, strong lady, just not bigger or better than her. Her spell had appeared to the inexperienced eye an order of magnitude greater in size than hers, when her fiery dust devil was in reality thrice as massive. (1) 'She just exaggerated the size by using an extremely flat spell! Then again, that was a line spell. That she made it that powerful is both ridiculous and frightening.'

Seeing no one had a comment on her debut spell, Louise glowed in her warmth and danced a little to celebrate her flaming victory. Tabitha noticed something at this point and nudged the nearest person to her, Reynald, and pointed at Louise's hair. Reynald took a double take, then adjusted his glasses to be sure.

"Louise! Your hair is on **FIRE**!"

The Valliere turned dumbly to try and find what part of her hair was on fire. With that spin she revealed to the class that her entire backside was burning, the spin feeding the smoldering flames fresh air, enough to flare to full size, and enough for Louise to feel them.

"Aaaaaahhhhhhhhh! Put it out! Put it out! Put it out!" Louise flailed about.

Immediately every water attuned mage in her class jumped into action. Ice, snow, water, and mist torrented towards her like a rogue wave. The chilling spells washed over her, putting out all the fire, clipping away any charred fabric, and knocking her face first into the newly generated mud with force.

Louise half groaned half sobbed into her new loamy companion. 'Can't I win at one thing without it exploding all over my face?' Soon, Colbert finished rushing over, and was greeted by a sight he was familiar with from his time teaching Fire Mage Troopers. Louise was down a treacherous amount of cloth on her backside. He threw off his mantle to cover Louise's rear flank and lifted her out of the mud.

As the class approached to see if Louise was in one piece, Colbert instructed, "This is why we focus on control when we cast flame spells. Errant flames can and have cooked mages alive. Please be careful to not let yourself get caught up in your own spells like Louise did today. That's it for class." He turned to Louise. "Don't worry, you don't appear to be burned significantly anywhere. A fresh change of clothes and a bath will have you as good as new. You're a tad lacking in the _rear guard_ right now, so take my cloak with you for now. And please, meet me after classes to discuss what happened here okay?" Louise nodded her head into her teacher's shoulder and tried to stay calm after her sudden reversal of fortune.

Colbert looked up to see that all but five of the students had left after seeing Louise was still alive. 'Were they really that eager to leave class?' "Miss Montmorency and Mister Gramont, I want you two to fix the swamp of a field that was just made here. Miss Zerbst and Miss Orleans, you can take Louise..." Louise shook her head into Colbert's shoulder.

"Not Kirche. Please, not Kirche right now." she mumbled.

"Excuse me, Tabitha, you and Mister Châtillon can escort Miss Valliere to her room and help her get cleaned up. I can trust you to mind your decorum, right Reynald?"

"Yessir!"

Colbert handed Louise over to the glasses wearing duo before assigning Kirche to double check no fires were still going and heading off to clean himself up before his next class.

* * *

It was quiet among the three as they made their way to Louise's room. Tabitha wasn't a chatter and Louise was still shaking off the shock of being bowled over by a half dozen water spells. Reynald was awkward enough having to make contact with Louise to help her upstairs, as Tabitha was only offering a reassuring hand on the other girl's shoulder.

Once there, Siesta greeted them and quickly prepared a change of clothes for Louise and took her down to the bathing rooms, reassuring the nobles she had it all handled. This left Tabitha and Reynald alone to ponder Louise's bad luck.

"She needs a tutor." After a long pause Tabitha spoke up as minimally as possible.

Glasses turned to face glasses. "That's absurd, she might have needed one before, but not now. Her spell was ridiculously powerful to the degree it backfired on her." Tabitha rolled her hand to tell Reynald to go on. "Unless you think that Louise didn't intend to generate that big of a spell?" Tabitha shook her head in the negative. "No? She wanted that big of a fire to show off then and lost control due to lack of practice. Is that what you're saying?" Tabitha nodded.

More silence swept through as the conversation died from having only one participant. Both nobles shifted about before Reynald turned to leave.

Tabitha reached out and stopped him from going just yet and pulled out a wax crayon and paper. The male mage saw this and sighed, "I know you don't like to speak, but this is ludicrous. Would it really hurt to use your words more than twice a day?" Tabitha looked up and shrugged noncommittally before shoving a note in his face.

"Let's see. 'Reynald the Dense, I want you to help me tutor Louise, as she won't likely be fond of Kirche, and you are the only other quality mage who's shown concern for Louise and isn't busy dating Guiche. I recommend morning lessons, but I can do afternoons too if that's better for you.' " Reynald blinked twice. "First off, I don't see how you can go about calling me dense for not assuming all that from 'she needs a tutor'. Secondly, why would I want to tutor Louise? As nice as that would be, I have my own things to do. I'm currently the Vice-Captain of the Ondine Knights after all."

Tabitha thought for a moment. "Duel me?"

"No thanks, I know you hide the fact that you're a strong triangle."

Tabitha internally flinched at the fact he knew that, was it that obvious? Trying again. "Hug?"

"I'm a gentleman, and that's a weak offer regardless."

Tabitha staved off a smile as she shifted gears.

"Leverage Guiche against you."

Reynald processed what that could possibly mean. "Hold on, can we go back to the hug? I don't like where this is going."

Tabitha shook her head, 'No. You had your chance.'

Reynald adjusted his glasses to glint at Tabitha. "I guess afternoons are better for me then." With that Tabitha dragged the poor formerly tertiary character into the plot.

* * *

Metal squeaked, "Hello? I'm still swimming in this fucking shit. Can someone please retrieve me before this stains any deeper?" No one heard Derflingr as he wallowed in filth, forgotten. Hopefully someone would walk by soon.

 **1\. Louise's fire disc clocks in at only 15.4 cubic meters of flame, while Kirche's flaming dust devil is 45.2 cubic meters. However, due to the shapes of each spell the students see 154 square meters of fire from Louise's spell, and only see 20 square meters of Kirche's. I'll write an omake (of anything remotely related to this story, regardless of lewd factor) for the first person who can guess all three defining dimensions of Kirche's cyclone in one attempt.**


	15. Chapter 15

**So, last time I issued a challenge to figure out the three defining dimensions of Kirche's spell. These were supposed to be the height of the vortex, and it's inner and outer radii, Darth Tobias misinterpreted the challenge as asking for Kirche's measurements and therefore did not win, the challenge is still on.**

 **This chapter was originally going to have a wholesome scene between Louise and Siesta. This did not happen, as Murphy's law is a fan of Louise, and hijacked my typing fingers. Regardless, enjoy this chapter at your discretion.**

Chapter 15: Cliché Misunderstanding

Louise let loose a roil of bubbles into the bath water. She had been clean for a while now, eyes settled just above the waterline. Siesta had run off to clean and mend her uniform and left a change of clothes for her which Louise verified was still present every few minutes. Right now, she was soaking and watching her hair float on the water, a mess of charred black strands and patches, uneven where some of her hair frayed off from her spell fire.

'How could I be that stupid? Setting yourself on fire? What did you think would happen if you dropped a giant circle of fire on top of yourself?' She disturbed the mildly muddy bath water with more angry bubbles. 'What is everyone going to think? At least they can't call me Zero anymore. They'll probably call me something inane like 'Louise the Flaming One', "Look at Louise! One spell and she set herself on fire!" Can't I do something right for once?'

The Void Mage picked up her wand. "Argh! Stupid! Idiot!" She pointed at a rock formation at the other end of the baths. The tip of her wand flashed white as it had countless times before, and the rocks exploded into a cloud of black smoke before sending waves through the main pool.

'So, I can still make that happen if I don't try an actual spell? Great...' She set off a series of small explosions throughout the bathhouse further muddying the waters.

Then her eyes settled on her primary rune. 'I bet you have something to do with all my bad luck.' The rune had done nothing. She leveled her wand at it standing up, bringing her hand inches from her face. The tip edging infinitesimally closer. "You better tell me what you've been doing to me," she mimicked a knight's air of intimidation, "or you're getting the explosion end of one of my spells." Louise let out a fake cackle, then some very real snickering. The rune, an inanimate blotch on her skin, did nothing. "I mean it." She pressed the tip of her wand into the back of her hand, skin puckering and her wand rubbing across the image of her rune.

Suddenly, blue light filled her vision, and Louise panicked, slipping backwards into the bath. All she could see was flashing blue lights diffused by the water as she flailed, hoping to find safety from whatever was attacking her. Bringing her knees to her chest and putting her hands between her legs, she carefully peaked back up over the waterline. The blue light was nowhere to be seen, and there was no one in her room. 'Then where did the blue light come from?'

Her mind clicked back to what she had just been doing. Louise carefully extracted her left hand from between her legs and the bath water glowed with that same blue light overpowering the soft tan the mud had changed the water to. Slowly she moved her hand upwards, out of the water revealing first one, then two holographic, cyan and navy circles, then her rune glowing the same colors along the dragon, and two of the stars blinked yellow.

The top circle was a ring with multiple 'petals' coming off, each with strange symbols written on them. Nested below, the second projection formed a grid within the circle with two yellow dots blinking towards the edges, and a red triangle centered pointing forward.

'What?' Louise stared at the hologram emanating from her hand. She took her right hand and attempted to grab the circles, but they were as immaterial as they appeared. She slid out of the water to better inspect the phenomenon. 'What did my stupid dragon do to me now?'

At that moment, knocking announced someone's arrival. Louise realized she had no idea how to dispel her rune's holograms, and no idea who was about to come into the bathhouse, as no one would be protecting the entryway at this hour. 'Please be Siesta.'

Fortunately, Siesta had arrived with a set of towels for Louise. She strolled over to Louise's bath to find her with her left hand shoved deep between her thighs. 'Why does this keep happening to me?' Siesta blushed and turned away from Louise, "I-I brought you some towels t-to dry off with. Please don't punish me for i-i-i-interrupting you, I wasn't expecting... I'm sorry."

'Interrupting? Ignoring that, I touched my wand to my rune to make this unholy blue light, but I dropped my wand in the bath when I panicked.' glancing down she could see her thigh was letting through some of the blue light. So, Louise pushed her hand deeper down, taking in a sharp breath as she attempted to sit on it as to hide the light better. 'If I move now though, Siesta will see this weird light, and I don't want her knowing about it until after I have it figured out.'

Speaking in a high, breathy voice due to her contortions, Louise asked, "Siesta, don't worry about that right now. I seem to have dropped my wand into the bath and can't..." She took in a breath, "move right now. Can you retrieve it for me?"

'And I thought I'd never have to deal with anything of this nature once Louise took me as her maid. It still beats being Mott's doll though.' She peered into the pool to only see murky water, the wand most likely at the bottom. Siesta sighed quietly to herself. "If you don't mind, I will be making sure to keep my uniform dry."

Siesta quickly started losing pounds of fabric as she steadily disrobed to go into the bath after Louise's wand. Despite the fact they were both women in a bathhouse, Louise felt obligated to turn around on her hand to give Siesta some privacy. Soon the sound of cloth falling to the floor stopped and there was a soft plop from the water as Siesta dove in after her wand.

A minute passed without a response from Siesta. Curious, Louise gyrated about on her hand again to face the pool of water. That's when Siesta reemerged.

'Brimir, they're overgrown cabbages!'

Siesta rose up out of the water and set Louise's wand within reach of her, keeping Louise in her peripheral vision as much as possible. "Here you are milady. I hope you have a... _pleasant time_ finishing up. I need to dry off before I leave you be, if you would humor me with a little more patience before getting started again." Siesta was fighting down a full faced blush just imagining what Louise had been up to. Meanwhile, Louise was keeping her eyes locked on Siesta while carefully grabbing her wand. 'I just have to touch my wand to my hand without letting her see any of the light. I can't stand waiting any longer.'

As the maid grabbed herself a spare towel and began vigorously drying herself off as quickly as possible, she noticed her mistress staring at her, her eyes behaving as the amazing motion trackers they were built to be. This predictably made Siesta self-conscious, and she turned her back to Louise to maintain some level of decorum this encounter had so far been running bankrupt of. Nearly dry, she finally moved to wrap her towel about her head to dry off her hair when Louise stuck her wand deep between her thighs with her second hand.

'There's no way! She couldn't possibly be that flippant about this. She's supposed to be a prudish noble! Shouldn't she be too ashamed of the thought of me seeing this? And she's staring at me while she-' Siesta felt her heart palpitate. Once, twice, thrice, 'She's getting off to me! A girl lusting after another girl? That's only supposed to happen as jokes in my raunchier books. There's no way it could ever really happen.' Her towel was quickly moved from her hair to cover herself as Louise's eyes temporarily darted back to both her fidgeting hands, one in a forearm deep past her legs, the other twisting a wand about prodding for something.

Louise could just see the flicker of her rune's light, but the closer she came to be touching it with her wand, the more light she would let spill out. This led to a squirming contortion game until, 'Yes! I'm almost there! Just a little more! Stick it in just a bit deeper!' The hard and rigid wood of her wand just barely scraped the edge of the dragon's snout and the rune stopped glowing. "Ahhhh, yes. I got it." Louise laid back spread out wide and sighing deeply in relief, panting and sweating from the relief of all the stress she had been building up floating away at her success. She rolled her head to the side to see Siesta staring back wide-eyed, a look of appall stretching her face as she attempted to cover herself with her towel.

'Did she see my rune glowing? Did it come back on?' Louise sat up sharply and checked her rune. 'No, it's off but,' "Siesta, did you see something? I'm sorry, I was trying to hide it and just didn't want you to see..."

"And you didn't want to wait for five minutes for me to leave!? Worse you had to ogle me up like you were some noble boy to do it! I thought you were above that Miss Valliere, but I guess I was wrong. I have rights as your servant you know, even if you choose to disregard them like every other noble does!" With that Siesta scooped up her uniform and dashed into the changing rooms, towel coming undone and falling to the ground as she did so.

"Ogle? Above what? Rights? Siesta, you aren't making any sense, please come back!" Louise almost ran after Siesta, but remembered she still wasn't dressed and couldn't bring herself to streak after Siesta through the castle. 'I need a towel and my clothes before I go find Siesta, where did…?' Now slowly sinking into the water, Siesta had accidentally kicked the dry towels into one of the bathing pools in her retreat. 'Of course! Because nothing is allowed to go my way it seems. I guess I'll have to flame dry myself with a spell.' Louise sighted her singed hair in the reflection of the one pool that had so far been undisturbed. 'Correction, I will air dry myself like Mom used to. Then I'll go find Siesta and sort this all out.'

Louise stretched out her arm, wand still in hand. 'Now, which spell did Mom used to use? Oh, great, now I'm imagining her naked. That'll be with me for the rest of the day. Oh, yes, I remember the spell now.' " _Ventus, Turben, Corpus, Adsicco_!" Wind suddenly rushed in from all angles, spiraling about Louise tickling shivers up her spine, with cool air licking past every part of her body. In moments Louise was as dry as an autumn leaf, hair frizzing up with the built-up static charge. 'And that's why I hated Mom drying me off from a bath as a kid. Now I have to brush my hair before meeting with Siesta.'

* * *

Over the past hour of classes, Louise had been looking high and low for Siesta. So far, she had found Derflingr.

"Look who's come back to retrieve their legendary sword! I'm sorry that I'm a touch smellier than you might remember, but credit for that goes to you. Now if you would kindly pull me out of this Brimir forsaken waste heap, I'll forgive you for putting me in here in the first place." Derflingr poured his false friendly tones like a thick gravy over his words to mask the irritation of being left for the better part of a day in manure.

Louise spoke back through a pinched nose, "Have you seen Siesta? Make it quick, I hate the smell here, you worthless sword."

"Siesta? I think she went to the central tower. Now please let me out of here, I'm sorry about the rude wake up from this morning." Derflingr leaned forward towards Louise to help her pull him out.

The Valliere stepped back in return and bowed her head, "You know what, we've both had a rough day, and I'm sorry about throwing you out the window. However, I need to find Siesta right now, so I'll come back for you later. Thank you." With that Louise dashed off for the Central Tower, grass blades trailing behind her as she tore across the lawn.

"You. You. You bitch! Get back here! Don't leave me to rust!" Derflingr's pommel sunk lower in defeat as his cry for help fell on uncaring ears.

* * *

Racing up the stairs of the central tower, Louise once again remembered the previous week and slowed down before turning a corner. It was good she did, as two pairs of spectacles greeted her.

"Oh, that was easier than you predicted, Tabitha. Louise, we've been sent to get you for Pr. Colbert. If you could just come with us," Louise quickly put a finger to Reynald's lips.

"I'm too busy right now. I'll stop by his office later." With that Louise turned about and dashed further up the stairs.

Reynald turned back to Tabitha, "So, are you going to have me catch her, or are we just going to wait for her to come back?"

Tabitha removed a dog whistle from her mouth. "Give chase, I'll cut off." Tabitha sat down on the parapet behind her before letting herself fall limp off of the tower stopping her compatriot's heart momentarily. She then soared back up the tower riding her dragon.

'Right, she has a dragon for a familiar.' Recovering, Reynald set off after Louise.

About half way up the tower Louise noticed the boy in glasses coming after her at full speed. "Get back down here!" he yelled. Louise wasn't going to let some random student stop her, so she continued her run up the stairs. "I've got more important things to handle! Leave me alone!"

Quickly running short on breath Louise lamented, 'I need to stop spending all day studying magic instead of being outside.' as she continued powering her way up the stairs. Closing in behind her Reynald similarly regretted skipping knight practice to study for classes this last month. 'How have I not caught up yet? I'm starting to tire out already, and we're barely to the top.'

Louise looked behind her to see her pursuer had stopped at the top of the stairs waiting with his wand ready. 'Why did he stop?' - **SMACK** \- Louise ran bodily into blue scales. Falling back on her butt, she looked up to see the unsurprising visage of Tabitha, staff at the ready. Louise waited for her to say something, but Tabitha merely indicated to Reynald.

Picking Louise up off the ground her peer spoke for Tabitha, "My acquaintance Tabitha is impatient, and wants you to see Colbert immediately. However, she's too lazy to tell you that herself." Reynald then ducked under Tabitha's responsorial wind blade. "Rude! Anyway, could you kindly come with us? Or will we have to do this the _Tabitha_ way." He glared back at the mentioned bluenette.

Louise looked back at Tabitha momentarily. "No, I have something to rectify with my maid, and..." Louise was now floating, "Hey! Tabitha, I thought we were friends now." Just as quickly as Tabitha floated her, Reynald magically confiscated her wand.

"I'm sorry Louise, but this is the Tabitha way." Tabitha rolled her hand at Reynald before putting her hands together. "Oh, and Tabitha says you are friends still... and something about only doing what friends must do?"

Dismounting Sylphid, Tabitha started marching Louise back to Colbert's office. Louise slumped in the air, 'There goes fixing things with Siesta in a timely manner.'

 **Reminder: The prize for the challenge is an Omake of your choice. (Who would want that though?)**


	16. Chapter 16

**Warning! This chapter contains _uNneCessAry aNgst_ reader discretion is advised.**

 **The challenge is still on for an omake, if nobody gets it then closest will win when chapter 18 is released.**

Chapter 16: Digging a Deeper Hole

"Louise, I will keep this brief as I suspect you already know what you did wrong earlier today and how you can go about correcting it." Colbert adjusted his glasses causing Tabitha and Reynald to subconsciously adjust theirs as well. Louise found this deeply unsettling on some primal level.

"Now, this may surprise you, but Tabitha here has volunteered herself and Reynald to tutor you on spell casting. Though you have theoretical magic down better than any other student at this academy, your practical experience is lacking. You need to learn to control your spells in both power output and improvised casting methods."

Louise sat up straighter, "Improvised casting methods? That sounds familiar, but I haven't read anything about it recently..."

"So, no one has talked to you about it yet? That makes sense since we put you in remedial spell casting instead of the regular course to try and catch you up. Weird that none of your friends have talked about that class with you though." Colbert furrowed his brow, that course was one of the few the students enjoyed talking about. "Anyway, we'll be putting you into the regular class once you've caught up. To get there, I recommend taking up your peer's offer of tutoring, if not I'm sure we could manage a schedule for the Headmaster to personally give you the crash course, but he doesn't have as much free time as he lets on, so you might have inconsistent lessons. It's your choice regardless."

Louise held her poise and avoided fidgeting. 'I've got to get out of here and find Siesta as soon as possible. I don't want her upset any longer than necessary, and this discussion could ramble on if I'm not careful.' Looking her Professor firmly in the eye, she gave her answer, "If it's all alright with Tabitha, I'd prefer learning with her, we can discuss the details later, right?"

Reynald pouted to himself, 'It's like none of them think my opinion on this matters at all!' He turned to Louise, "Sure, we can discuss the important things during the lessons. I hope the afternoon works for you, because I have sword practice with the Ondine Knights in the morning."

Louise had little concern for that, "Wonderful, we can meet after classes!" She shot up shoving her chair back slightly and reached for the door. "I'll see myself out now!"

Though it took a moment to notice, Louise saw her forward progress undone as Tabitha floated her back into her chair. Louise let her left eye twitch at being handled like that again, "What was that for? You can't keep doing that spell on me, it's plain rude." Tabitha responded by shoving a piece of paper past Louise into Reynald's face.

After retrieving the note from his face with a grumble, Reynald relayed, "Tabitha wants you to know we'll be meeting in Vestri Court. Also, she challenges you to stop her from using that spell on you."

Louise looked at Reynald expectantly. "Oh, I think you can go now if you're still in a rush?" Then Louise was out the door. Soon Tabitha and Reynald followed her out, giving their goodbyes to their professor.

* * *

Louise continued her climb up the central tower. She knew by this point that Siesta could only have gone to one place, Osmond's office. She dreaded what could have transpired while Tabitha had delayed her. The silence coming from the office as she approached only made her worry Siesta had already come and gone. 'What did she do?'

Miss Longueville then appeared from a room neighboring the office. "Oh, Louise de la Vallierre? That makes things simple for me. The Headmaster just sent me to get you! Please come this way."

Louise was surprised that she was expected at the office but noticed something else as well. 'Why was she coming from the other room if she was supposed to come find me? Shouldn't she be coming from Osmond's office or already on the grounds looking for me? I should tell Osmond about this.'

Louise followed Miss Longueville into Osmond's office. Inside the Headmaster held a dour face into steepled hands, two signed papers meticulously set square on the desk facing Louise. "Miss Longueville, I'll need you to step out for a minute, the matter I'm about to speak with Louise with I'd prefer to keep confidential." Longueville complied and shut the door on her way out launching some dust up to float in the air.

For a while Osmond didn't speak or look at Louise. He stared blankly at his thumbs with his familiar somberly posted on his shoulder. Curiosity begged her to find out what had just happened, so Louise looked down at the papers laid before her. She could make out Osmond's and Siesta's signatures, both papers littered with legal jargon. On top of one read, 'Request for Intervention and Relevant Testimony', the other, 'Restraint of Immoral Individual Directive'.

The last mote of dust settled itself far from the others, alone on the desk. Now Osmond raised his gaze to Louise and spoke. "Your recently acquired maid, Siesta, has just leveled a serious accusation against you. One of a nature that normally would have meant nothing coming from a commoner against a noble. Unfortunately, one of the many laws recently passed by our Majesty Henrietta has changed that." Louise suddenly felt obligated to defend her childhood friend and sovereign's reputation but held silent to hear more of what Osmond had to say before blindly arguing for the princess. "Today the issue is her new _Action for the Rights of Commoners_ declaration. While a well-intentioned reform, the practical effects are as variable as the wind. I won't bore you with the details but will get straight to the point."

Osmond said it simply and flatly, "Your maid has accused you of sexual misconduct."

That threw Louise into a mental aerial stall. Her eyes glassed over, and her mouth fell slightly ajar. 'Sexual Misconduct! How?' _Tick, tick_. 'I only tried to-' _Tick_. 'I had my hands- and I had Siesta-' _Tick_. 'Then I- while keeping an eye on her-' _Tchik_. 'And once I was done-' _Fwoom_. Her mind caught fire with understanding. 'I've been denser than a pile of bricks. What does Siesta think of me now? Oh Brimir, this could've gone even worse if someone else had showed up!' She started focusing back in on Osmond who was ranting about the law, now stating it wouldn't impact truly despicable nobles such as Mott but gave a bludgeon of a legal weapon to those who wished to abuse it.

He noticed how he'd started to ramble and rerailed himself. "Sorry about that, but here's the meat. Until such a time where investigation disproves Siesta's claim, or she withdraws it, you are subject to a set of restraints. For one, you are no longer allowed to undress before Siesta, or see her undressed. Additionally, since you and Siesta are both women, you are no longer allowed in any public area designated for women at the same time as another woman. Terribly broad in restriction, I know. As you and Siesta are the only witnesses, your only way of repealing this is with Siesta's un-coerced withdrawal of the claim. Best of luck with that." Osmond pulled out a pipe to take some of the edge off his voice.

Louise interjected, "You seem to already know I'm innocent though. Why?"

"Knowing you, normally I would have bent the rules a little and just given you a warning and a pointed joke. I know how much of a sheltered girl you are and a prude on top of that. However, Princess Henrietta will be here in four short days for the familiar showcase, and I can't be caught fudging her laws." With an aging sigh, the venerable headmaster slouched back and leaned into his mouse's comforting nuzzling of his cheek.

Louise perked up upon realizing Henrietta would be here. "What if I explained my situation to the Princess once she gets here? We've been friends since we were little, surely she could do something."

Once again, Osmond let out a sigh, "Even if you can get someone as principled as Henrietta to pull strings for you, I must notify some of the staff about this by tonight, and then we risk rumors spreading about you. You don't deserve your reputation tarnished by something like this, but I'll see what I can do if you can't sort out this misunderstanding by sunset." He went silent to let Louise stew on the possible implications her peers could draw. Dread drenched anxiety uncoiled like banners around her. Osmond turned to his window, standing up he puffed out a ring of ashen smoke that transfigured itself into a clock. "The sun's already getting low, is there anything you'd like to ask before you go. As a freebie Miss Longueville chose the color green today." The wall creaked briefly at that.

Louise tried to muster up a disapproving glare but was already drained from the day and settled for a blank stare.

"Right, you don't care for that, I'm sorry." Osmond had the decency to feign being abashed by that.

"Oh, when I was coming here Miss Longueville was-" Louise was cut off by a sudden hand to her mouth.

Osmond whispered to her so softly he didn't even disturb his mustache, "I'm aware she's eavesdropping, it's best to let her think we don't know she's up to something. She won't find it necessary to reveal anything said here today as she would risk blowing her cover. Now, please change what you were saying to something else."

Louise spat a little into her hand as Osmond removed his hand. "Uh- Her skirt was riding a little low! Isn't that funny?"

* * *

In the neighboring room Fouquet checked her skirt as silently as possible and involuntarily hiked it up just to be safe.

* * *

Osmond looked at Louise inquisitively, "That's all you got?" Louise returned a pleading shrug.

The headmaster turned around to face the wall, "Oh, how tantalizing to know, thank you for that dear. You should get going now." Sitting back down in his chair he advised Louise, "One last thing, remember to take good care of your tools and friendships in life Louise, that way they'll take care of you."

With that Louise set off to find Siesta and set things straight before nightfall.

* * *

Passing by the Girls' Dormitories once more, Louise ignored Derflingr's pleas for rescue as she spotted Siesta folding her laundry. 'It can't be that bad if she's still doing her job.'

She called out, "Siesta, we need to talk for a minute." Siesta turned to face her with a rigid posture and a forcibly neutral face.

"What can I do for you Mistress Vallierre? I trust the headmaster explained our boundaries as Master and Servant to you?" Louise recognized the monotone of scorn reverberating through Siesta's greeting.

'Okay, minor minefield ahead. I'm not some stupid boy though, so I should be able to explain what actually happened to Siesta.'

Louise took a steadying breath. "I'd like to talk about what happened earlier in the bathing pools today. If you'd like, we can discuss this in my dormitory."

Siesta gave no major reaction, she was expecting this clearly. She bent over to continue folding, "Here will be fine, I need to finish my chores for the day." She wasn't even making eye contact with Louise now, focusing instead on folding shirts.

One step in, a thousand more explosions to avoid. "I believe that you may have misunderstood what you saw. You see I was just trying to hide, my uh-" she whispered, "my rune."

"You know what Mistress? That's a perfectly reasonable explanation!" Louise's gut yelled at her mind to stop feeling relieved at this. "You definitely needed to hide that from the person you showed it to the night before. It even explains through omission why you had me get your wand and what you were doing with it."

Maybe don't step there next. "Oh, um. It was something new about my rune though and it needed the wand to get turned on and off."

Siesta was now folding her A-cups. "Then you could show me what's new about your rune, right? I do enjoy studying about it with you..." Louise felt that the sarcasm thrown in at the end was a touch too mocking.

Careful, you can't go there either. "I'd love to, but I can't do that outside unfortunately. It'd attract too much attention."

Now the maid gave a single laugh to herself. "Oh, isn't that inconvenient. Now, one thing seems just a touch odd to me." Siesta turned to face Louise, a pair of her panties in hand. "Why. Did you need. To stare at me. Through the whole. Process?" With each pause Siesta stroked the interior bottom of Louise's panties to emphasize exactly what she thought Louise was truly up to.

The ground sunk a fraction underneath Louise's foot. "I-I-I just didn't want you to see what I was trying to do. You know I don't engage in those sorts of things!"

"Oh, dear Louise, you are a terrible liar. Remember, I changed your sheets while you were in the infirmary all too recently. I'm not buying your tale."

Louise grew flustered at the sudden accusation. She was telling the truth; how couldn't Siesta see it? "No, but I need you to understand so you can withdraw that claim you made." Louise's hands shot to her mouth. She recognized her mistake immediately and knew she had just stepped in it.

Boom, Explosion. Siesta had finished folding her laundry and stood up to tower her full height over Louise. "Miss Valliere, I'm disappointed in you. You saved me from Count Mott, and I am grateful for that, and because of that I'll overlook how you have tried to manipulate me just now. I won't retract my report though, I think it would do you g-good to think about how you've changed s-since you got your magic working. I'm a-a person too, and I th-thought y-you could see that, unlike th-the other n-n-nobility." Siesta's whole body curled in on itself as she shuddered, eyes starting to bead with tears. "Until then, I r-request you let m-me p-perform my d-duties as s-separate f-f-f-from you as poss-ss-ss-ssible." She bowed deeply before Louise, tears tracking down her cheeks at a slow, melancholy pace.

Louise was frozen, she had failed. She couldn't set things right. 'No, I still have a chance, there's got to be something I can still say to salvage this.' Louise reached out, "Siesta, this is all a terrible misunderstanding... I-" then Siesta had left, not willing to hear another word.

Louise raged at herself, 'Why is this happening? I'm a noble, an expert communicator by trade. I should be able to say things and have people understand. Is this more bad luck from those wishes? I thought I was supposed to have someone looking out for me to stop these things from happening, but clearly I've got no one.' Louise trembled with her failure, every bone vibrating loathing for the dragon that marked the beginning of this string of bad luck.

"That's rough." Not more than thirty feet away a hollow metal voice echoed out to Louise. 'Derflingr?' Louise turned to see her sword, still stewing in fecal matter from early this morning. "It's no fun being on the other side of a misunderstanding, or at the mercy of someone's illogical emotions. It can really get you into a pile of shit if you don't learn to dance on eggshells."

Louise approached her weapon left in poor conditions. "What should I do? I tried explaining things to her, but she wouldn't listen, and I upset her." Louise sat herself near the bin just far enough to not soil her clothes with the manure.

"Apologize, I'll hold your hand through this rookie. I take it this is your first time scorning a woman like Siesta. Sometimes all you can do is swallow your pride and apologize for something you didn't do and save the explanation for much later once things have calmed down. It bites like a bad case of oxidation, I get that, I've been where you are now a hundred times. Comes with being a sharp-tongued sword like me."

Louise nodded in partial understanding.

"Why don't I give you an example? Louise, I'm sorry for waking you up so rudely this morning. Will you forgive me?" At this point, Louise realized how unfairly she had been treating Derflingr today.

She stood up, reached into the composting bin as the second moon rose and pulled Derflingr free. "Apology accepted, but really I should be asking forgiveness from you after I left you here all day. Will you forgive me and help me with Siesta?"

Derflingr glowed in the moonlight as the last sun rays bled out to give way for moonbeams to light the world. "Honestly, getting pulled out of that ick is apology enough for me at this point. Wash me off and I'll help you with your problem too, partner."

Louise took Derflingr over to a barrel full of water and started to bucket water out to clean him. "So, what's our timeframe for this apology, partner?"

Louise slumped frayed and blackened hair strands floating about her, "To avoid the school thinking I'm a total pervert and possibly a lesbian? About ten minutes ago."

"Ah, yes, hmm. Have you considered moving to another country instead?"


	17. Chapter 17

**Merry Christmas! Today's chapter is a shorter one, but I might (read: will never) come back and add more later. As far as that contest goes, all guesses need to be in by next update, so far only one person has submitted a valid guess. A few days ago two of you found my poll and answered it, congratulations it only took you roughly fifty days to find it! I was predicting ninety. I forgot everything else I was going to say here, so enjoy.**

Chapter 17: Swords

Louise sat before her fireplace, a small fire glowing there after she had used _her magic_ to light it, holding a recently cleaned sword over her lap. "So, how do you propose I fix my mess? I'm all open for suggestions right now."

Malodorous metal answered, "For starters, it seems you're a bit late to meet that deadline you mentioned. Assuming that isn't a life-threatening mistake, we should take our time now. Give Siesta her space until she isn't all riled up from whatever happened; pestering her for forgiveness isn't an effective tactic. The actual apology is a bit tricky though, you'll have to tell me _exactly_ what happened for me to help."

"Oh, um..." Louise flushed, dropping Derflingr to twiddle her index fingers. "Well, it started in the baths..."

Derflingr rose up and down in an attempt at a nod.

"I had just discovered something about this damnable rune when Siesta arrived and I... tried to hide it." Now she wasn't looking at her sword.

"Eh? I don't see why you'd hide your rune from her. You already showed it to her right?"

Louise leaned back onto her hands, "It's not that simple. You know how superstitious Siesta was about you at first? Imagine how she would react to this." Louise threw off her glove and swiped the tip of her wand across her rune igniting the holographic lights and tinting the room cyan.

"Point made, what the hell is that?" Derflingr jostled his hilt towards Louise's hand, and Louise wielded him readily.

"I didn't get a chance to figure it out before Siesta arrived. I was hoping to figure out exactly how this works before explaining it to anyone, or maybe just not telling anyone at all for that matter. However, I may have had limited options in hiding it without any clothes..." Again, Louise gained some pink at the thought of the debacle.

Derflingr hummed, the vibrations rolling down Louise's arm, "No clue what these circles and dots mean, but it does seem to be your rune's primary function. Anyways, considering what Siesta did to your panties earlier and that you were trying to hide your rune." A silent pause echoed. "Were you daft enough to sit on it? If so, I think I see what happened."

Louise could only look over her left shoulder in response.

"Oh, worst case scenario at that too. Ouch, you'd be lucky to get off groveling to Siesta at this rate." Louise then dropped Derflingr onto the floor. "Not productive, understood." he wheezed out.

Louise got down on her hands and knees to meet Derflingr again, dispelling the hologram as she did so. "So, what should I do exactly? I want to get this apology over with as soon as possible, but you suggested I wait a bit."

"First off, keep me on your person from now on, I can't do much to help you lying around collecting dust. In the meantime, we should probably wait a day at least so you don't come off as pressuring Siesta for forgiveness. Wednesday morning is probably the earliest you want to confront Siesta again if possible." Louise grimaced, that was already a lot of time. "When you do, you'll need to apologize to her understanding of what happened."

Louise slapped Derflingr to no effect. "I'm not going to claim responsibility for something I didn't do!"

Derflingr moved a centimeter away, "I'm not suggesting that. You can be vague about that all you want, it's almost better that way. You just need to apologize in a way Siesta will find acceptable, possibly have a gift ready for that. Explaining the details without retroactively undoing the apology can come later, ideally after we figure out that new facet of your rune."

There was a lull as Louise processed Derflingr's advice. "That seems a bit ridiculous, but you are my partner I guess."

Derflingr's heart of alloy and ions fluttered as every electron in it temporarily spun in unison. "You got _that_ right! Now let's figure out how that rune of yours ticks!"

Louise immediately slammed Derflingr's guard shut. "Not so loud with the rune talk." she hissed. Derflingr mumbled his understanding.

* * *

"So, these two petals move the dots closer and further from the center, this one lets us move all the dots and the triangle around, these two let us spin everything and this one makes a bunch of lines appear and disappear. Additionally, every dot corresponds to a star on my rune… This doesn't do anything useful at all, does it?"

Derflingr thought for a moment. "Maybe you could blind someone at close range by suddenly activating it? Are you sure it's not some sort of star map? I think the triangle is supposed to be us?"

Louise spun around with the hologram, and the little red triangle spun around with her. "Maybe it's a fancy compass? What if the stars are capitols? No, half of them wouldn't be in the right place if that were the case."

For a while Louise and Derflingr just stared at the mystical dots.

"Hey, Louise? Is it me or is the closest dot getting even closer now?" Derflingr broke the silence.

"Really?" Louise now put her eyes up to the dot Derflingr had indicated. Her eyes slowly started to ache as though she had looked at the sun, arteries shooting blood into her eyes as she held her entire body as a statue, waiting for something to happen.

Then it moved. Just a little towards her, but so fast that it may as well have been a new dot in its own right. "You're right. What does that mean? Could it be someone else? We're the triangle, I think, so is the dot other important people? There's a dot roughly where Romalia's Capitol is if the moving one is at the palace. Some of the curvy lines almost look like Halkegenia in a way as well."

"So, it tracks royalty? You did say your princess friend was going to be heading this way soon. Why would that dragon of yours give you such an ability?"

Louise had to think that over for a bit. Why would the dragon give her a way to find royalty? Why seven dots and seven stars? That seemed familiar for some reason. "Aaaarghhh! I don't know, you tell me since you can just feel it." Louise puffed out an irritated breath. "If we're the red dot and that yellow dot keeps getting closer, then we just have to wait for it to come to us."

"That's a possibility, but how long will that take?"

"Too long." The second moon gleamed into the room as Louise deactivated her rune and the fire died. Seven crystalline beams of light patterning the floor as though to mock her. "It's long past time I got some sleep. Maybe I'll see you in the morning with a _friendlier_ wakeup call Derflingr?"

Derflingr settled into a crook in the wall he had been lain against. "Will do partner, sleep easy."

* * *

Getting up the next day and having battled to hide as much burnt hair as possible, Louise strapped Derflingr under her mantle and set out for an early breakfast. As she crossed the main lawn to the dining hall, she passed by several of the academia's boys swinging swords uniformly, 'training' to be better knights.

Derflingr popped up out of his sheath a little, "Didn't you buy me to practice your nonexistent swordsmanship? When are we getting around to that anyway?"

Louise continued towards the dining hall. "We'll do that when I don't have a ruler's burden of issues to deal with. I just don't have the time right now, okay?"

"Oh really? You aren't doing much right now. How about you practice with the novice brigade over there? They would appreciate seeing a newbie try, to see how far they've come."

Derflingr could feel Louise tense up, her slowing stroll grow more rigid. "I thought you were trying to convince me to do this? There's no way I'm going to make a fool of myself like that."

The sword laughed, "Au contraire, I'm sure they would jump to teach you or show you the ropes. Just ask to join and you'll be drowning in friendly advice. You'll enjoy it, trust me."

Louise finally stopped short of the steps into the dining hall. "Can you promise me they won't humiliate me somehow? I've had nothing but bad luck for the last week ever since my summoning attempt. Everyday something seems to be ready to make my life miserable. I don't want to give any opportunities for terrible things to happen, I haven't even fixed things with Siesta yet."

Derflingr pressed on, "I promise I'll have your back. Now go ask them if you can play too, they aren't doing anything special today by the looks of things."

"Alright then," Louise snapped an about face tearing blades of grass to shreds and marched over to the boys whom were stopping between exercises.

The Valliere puffed up to her full height as all the masculine attention in the area was directed at her. A gentle murmur rippled through the gentlemen until one spoke up. "Oi, what do you want Flaming Louise!" A giggle was cut short by a student hitting the dirt.

Louise couldn't see what was going on in the back of the crowd but addressed the question anyway. "I want to learn how to use a sword, and a friend suggested asking you gentlemen for help. That is, if you know anything about sword fighting."

Louise took a step back as the boys erupted into simultaneous reprisals to her challenge. "Did you just imply we're novices?" "You came to the right place! Now don't go doubting us!" "That is an insult to our corps honor! We'll have to show you just how competent we are!" "Oh, dear Louise, I accept your challenge. We'll make a warrior out of you." "Do you even have a sword?"

Louise barely picked up the last comment, and in classic noble showboatsmanship, drew Derflingr in his brown off gray glory. "Wonderful, I have a sword as you can see. Now where do we begin?" That quickly silenced a large number of the knights in training. "Yeah, don't all jump at once to fill me in."

Not one of the corps' members wanted to teach Louise anything it seemed. After all, who wanted to be seen teaching the former Zero? Then Guiche drew a devilish smirk. "Vice-captain." he whispered. Reynald shuffled over to him. "I believe you are in charge of training anyone who falls behind in sword practice, right?"

Reynald shifted his glasses, "Yes, that's why we used to meet up after classes after all." Guiche blanched before growing vindictive. "What are you-"

With a mighty shove, Guiche launched Reynald in front of the group shouting, "It seems our honorable vice-captain has volunteered! What a gentleman!"

Into Louise's ear Derflingr whispered himself, "Wow, I've never seen nobles avoid spending time with a lady like you before. Maybe you did get cursed after all." The future swordswoman grit her teeth and squeezed her sword's flap shut.

Reynald fumed to himself as he shot mental daggers back at Guiche. Guiche flicked them away in turn with little effort. 'I thought Tabitha said she wasn't going to get Guiche to pull strings like that!' Forcing a friendly smile back onto his face he turned to face an equally fuming and suppressing Louise.

 **'What am I, moldy pork rinds to these people?'**

"Louise, I guess we have to start learning together sooner than expected. Let's go over back towards the dorms a little to see what you know."

As the two walked aside from the group, both could only think one thing, **'I bet Tabitha put him up to this.'**

Up above watching the two out of the corner of her eye as she rushed to get dressed, Tabitha let out a demure sneeze. 'Crapbaskets! Can't leave the two alone together. I must be her best friend. Also, kicking up too much dust.'

Reynald drew his own saber, "Okay, what do you know about swords Louise?"

Louise paused as she released her sword's guard and brought it closer to her ear. Derflingr relayed to her, "Really? Just say nothing. You need me to spell it out for you?" Louise looked over to her new instructor.

"Nothing yet, but everyone starts somewhere?"

Reynald kissed more of his personal time goodbye. "Well, your grip says as much. You've got the hilt way to close to your cheek. I've heard sword masters say they can hear their sword speak to them, but that's ridiculous. We'll start with your home stance and grip then."

So, Louise spent the morning before breakfast training with Reynald, quickly joined by Tabitha who had him relay regular compliments on Louise's progress. And for once, nothing seemed to go wrong.


	18. Chapter 18

**So this is twelve hours late. As of the time I would normally post this chapter only 2/3 was done. Partly this is due to me taking on roughly nine extra hours of work during time I had originally alotted to writing this chapter and other things, but I would have had this done on my self imposed deadline if I hadn't procrastinated as much. The hardest part of every chapter is writing the first paragraph.**

 **Other stuff. The contest has its winner, the only person who entered. I'll also be moving update day to Tuesdays later this month once I have classes again, but today's chapter still counts as late. Finally, we might see a dragonball again by chapter 20 or 21 if all goes** **keikaku doori.**

Chapter 18: Breakfast with a Side of Kirche

After finishing her first day of sword practice, which had been watched by Tabitha from nearly the beginning to the end, Louise and her companions had been invited to have breakfast with Guiche and Montmorency. Louise could barely believe someone was willing to spend a meal with her and had quietly reveled in that fact. She even went so far as to thank her lousy dragon for unlocking her magic, as in her mind that was the big cause of this sudden change.

In the dining hall, Louise and Reynald had sat down across from Guiche and Montmorency, whom were giggling to themselves for an unknown reason until Tabitha arrived and planted herself between Louise and her tutor.

While they waited on their meals to be delivered to them, Montmorency began, "Louise, it's truly a pleasure to have you and your friends join us this morning." Louise glanced to her left out of the corner of her eye, amazed the bespectacled people were both thought of as her friends now. "I'd like to start this morning off by settling a disagreement Guiche and I have been having. He thinks _roses_ are the best kind of flower, I know _jonquils_ are better though."

'What? I don't know anything about flowers! Except their uses in potions...' Louise looked at Montmorency and realized there was a deeper meaning in the 'argument' the couple was having. "Oh... Um. I think it's nice you both have your own favorites. Maybe you can make a potion out of them sometime?" Louise felt very proud of her answer, it had been a while since she had an inane conversation like this.

Guiche snorted into his hand to muffle a guffaw and Montmorency went rosy in the cheeks herself. "Take a guess how this argument started."

Breakfast continued in that vein with Tabitha and Reynald nose deep in books. Just before the maids had begun serving, Kirche pounced upon the group. She leaned over Reynald to hug Tabitha, flesh forcing him to abandon reading his book. "Tabitha! Where have you been? I set out to clean up the training field with Flame and you up and disappeared! Now you're spending time with Louise without me, and even got a boyfriend without telling me?"

Tabitha quirked a brow at Kirche while Louise leaned away from the feral beast that came to ruin her breakfast. From under Kirche's cleavage, Reynald ground out, "You're absolutely wrong in your assumption. Now, please get off before I make you."

Kirche complied by sliding over his head and squeezing between him and Tabitha. Reynald's left eye was now twitching from both the close contact with cloth and the colors it bore witness too.

"Okay, my bad, it's so hard to tell with you. Anyways, how're you doing Louise? I see you're doing alright after you're showing off yesterday. You even got all the nerds and Guiche together." Guiche didn't know how to react to not being included under the banner of nerds by Kirche and decided to hug Montmorency from the side.

Louise, primed to strike like a viper, struck out, "I'm doing perfect, thank you. So, you can leave now, filthy cow, Tabitha has upgraded to better friends. Take your udders and rub them over someone else!" Louise steeled her gaze with her mother's iron, willing Kirche away. In turn Tabitha was silently pinching the bridge of her nose and shaking her head.

"How ignoble of you Louise! Why must you be so cruel claiming Tabitha and I aren't friends, just because she's in a relationship now?" She grabbed onto her less buxom friend and held her close to her chest.

Reynald chimed in again, "To reiterate, the two of us are barely acquaintances." Kirche ignored him.

Louise, unaware of anyone but Kirche at this time, received her plate of food from Siesta, who left without a word. Standing up Louise jammed her finger into Kirche's nose deforming it to resemble a pig's. "You're one to talk with all the ignoble, immodest things you do. Worse, you seem to have no shame for it! How can you call yourself a noble?" Derflingr was now pulling on Louise to get her to sit back down.

Kirche grabbed Louise's hand from her face, and slowly drew up to her full height as a dragon would, ready to breath fire. "And you're one to talk about being a noble. You've cast one spell, and you burnt yourself like the amateur you are." Kirche leaned forward, reached into Louise's hair and effortlessly ripped out a chunk of burnt hair from beneath Louise's concealing weave. Charred strands fell limp like dead grass in Kirche's hand.

Louise lunged to swipe her hair back from Kirche, squishing Tabitha's head between her hips and Kirche's as the red-haired demon held her hair high out of reach and leaned back. Before the growing pile of mages could topple, Tabitha tapped Reynald on his knee thrice.

Tabitha grappled Louise and sat her down before dropping a silencing spell on her while Reynald took Kirche in a full Nelson. This was a mistake on Reynald's part as he was the only person supporting Kirche, whom overbalanced both of them. With a crunch, Kirche collapsed onto him breaking his glasses with her shoulder.

Kirche immediately sat back up dusting herself off as Louise mutely yelled at first her, then Tabitha. The Gallian turned around to get Reynald but found him carefully pulling glass out of his face as blood pooled above one eye. She turned back to Louise stating, "Stay." before taking Kirche in arm and leading her away.

Louise fumbled with her wand before undoing the silence put on her. She saw Tabitha taking Kirche to another part of the hall and found the rest of her group leading Reynald out with napkins pressed to his face. There was no way she would be confronting Kirche again, and all of her friends that weren't Tabitha had already handled Reynald. It felt strange suddenly being alone, but Louise knew how to handle that best. So, left alone and unsure what to do next, Louise faced her breakfast.

Whispering into her ear, Derflingr allowed himself to speak, "You shouldn't have escalated that. I get you don't like Kirche, but you should know better than anyone that your behavior was uncalled for. Especially for a noble."

Louise brandished her fork and stabbed at an egg, yolk breaking to reveal dry and crumbly yellow innards. "I'm not the brat who ripped out someone's hair." She shoveled the egg into her mouth so that she wouldn't have to speak more.

"You still could have prevented that by being more civil. You were so focused on Kirche, you missed Siesta bringing your breakfast for you."

'Speaking of breakfast.' Louise expelled the egg from her mouth into a napkin. "This is awful. What's going on?" Derflingr rolled in his sheath to get a better look at the breakfast.

Though her breakfast looked perfectly normal, flipping items with her fork revealed to Louise not all was well. The underside of her toast was burnt to resemble the night sky, her sausage was raw having only been cooked on one side, and her eggs were drier than a tomb. Additionally, that was all she had received this morning, no other dishes were present.

Blood was already boiling again before it had time to simmer down. "Someone deliberately ruined my breakfast while disguising it to look edible. They'll pay." Louise planted both hands on the table before her but was stopped by Derflingr.

"Hold on partner. Do you even know who ruined your breakfast or why?" That stopped Louise.

"No, but it had to be the head chef's fault. Right?" Louise incrementally sat back down into her seat as she started to think over what was happening.

"Perhaps, but why would one of the cooks, much less the head chef, want to ruin your breakfast? Perhaps the person who delivered the meal could enlighten us?"

Louise slowly nodded her head in pretend understanding, a patch of fried hair sticking out of her hair like an open wound bobbing up and down. "Wait, are you saying this is related to Siesta?"

"Yes genius!" the metal hissed as though it were being quenched, "Clearly she's already told someone something about what happened. Probably the head chef you mentioned at that. He's likely looked up to by the staff, so Siesta may have gone to him to vent."

Louise stood up and walked over to a basket holding muffins for all the students and grabbed two. 'One for me, and one for Derflingr to watch me eat.' She worked her way out of the hall and outside, asking Derflingr, "Why don't I want to tell the head chef off then? He more than deserves being removed after a stunt like this."

"Simply put, you would make a scene, and you might get your dirty laundry aired in the process. Besides, getting the man fired seems a bit much."

Louise set herself down on some grass outside, "Is your solution to every problem to do nothing and wait? I see how that can work out for you, but I'm not immortal."

"I'm not telling you to do nothing. That's one of the worst things anyone could do. I'm telling you to wait and think before you act, to react less explosively to everything that comes your way in life. Wars aren't won by fighting every battle, but by fighting only the few that are necessary. You've got a great fighting spirit, but none of a noble tactician's restraint. Let's work on that together, okay partner?"

For a while Louise watched a single cloud shaping far away from the others in the sky, mindlessly petting a scaly familiar looking for attention. Realizing it was Kirche's salamander she recoiled and got back up off the ground, much to Flame's disappointment. "I hate how you make yourself sound so wise saying things I already know. It's not easy just letting things go uncontested though. But you would say I should just react more tactfully, right?" Louise was given no verbal response.

A large number of students were now exiting the dining hall to briefly check on their familiars before classes. Louise marched towards her next class. Despite Kirche ruining her breakfast, she didn't feel bad about the whole affair. Seemingly due to her first public spell, she had several people willing to be her friends, and once she resolved her problems with Siesta she'd be in a much better place. 'If I don't do that soon, then this all might come undone though.'

As Louise topped the steps into the tower holding her classes, Tabitha appeared before her saying one word, "Reciprocate." Tabitha promptly turned Louise around to see Kirche at the bottom of the steps with her head hung to let crimson strands cover her face.

"Louise! I apologize for my behavior earlier. It was not becoming of a noble such as myself." Kirche bowed by a quarter, "Please, let me recompense for today, and forgive my actions."

Louise had all of half a moment to be shocked before Tabitha elbowed her in the back knocking her down a step. After quickly recovering, Louise made her way back down until she was level with Kirche. Meeting her gaze, she started, "I accept your apology-" Derflingr rubbed into her back a little, "but I should also apologize for not being well mannered myself. Surely, you can forgive me as I forgive you?" Louise in turn bowed her head.

"Oh Louise, of course I do!" Kirche swept up Louise into a hug. Spinning around once and holding her high, Louise couldn't feel the ground under her feet as she was smothered. 'These aren't breasts! They're implements of torture!' Trying to free herself, Louise tapped Kirche's back repeatedly. Kirche took this as a reciprocation of her hug and set Louise down.

"You know what Louise, to make up for your hair I will get it cut for you. Getting rid of all those burnt patches will do you some good."

After quickly checking that all her ribs were intact, Louise responded, "That would be very nice actually. Thank you." So, they went to class together that morning.

-Later, in a closet-

"So, the yellow dot got closer. It'll be on top of us before the end of the week at this rate."

"Right, we'll worry about that then. Tomorrow we can try apologizing to Siesta, right?"

"We'll have to wait and see."

 **This chapter seemed a bit fast paced. Just me? Is that a good thing if so?**


	19. Chapter 19

**Insert Author's Note here.**

Chapter 19: _Flatus_

As her last class of the day finished, Louise took a right out the door to go to her bedroom and talk to Derflingr. She was immediately stopped by a hand on her shoulder. "Where do you think you're going?" Louise was turned around to see Reynald, clump of cotton over one eye with Tabitha looming behind him. "Vestri Court is the other way, and Tabitha will not have you miss a lesson."

Louise was reminded of what happened at breakfast. "Hold on. Are you alright? Should you really be up after what happened to your eye?" As she said this Louise noticed Tabitha step forward just barely in front of Reynald.

He addressed her concerns, "I didn't lose my eye if that's what you were wondering. I only got a few nasty cuts around it that need to heal. Since I'm almost blind at the moment, Tabitha volunteered to take notes for me. I can still give you lessons on spell control though."

The small group was now moving towards the courtyard, Tabitha leading the way. "So, I didn't think to ask before, but why are both of you assisting me in catching up? Shouldn't one of you be enough?"

Now outside, Reynald turned to respond, "Oh, that? Tabitha is too lazy to say a word, so she's having me do the talking and- Gagh!"

Having abruptly stopped in front of him Tabitha caught Reynald by the scruff of his uniform before he could fully trip and fall. "Clumsy."

Reynald recomposed himself, "Anyway, Tabitha's doing plenty to help." After a spell, the three arrived at Vestri Court and Tabitha immediately propped her staff against a tree, sat down and continued reading her book.

"So... Is she just here to watch? Or am I missing something?" Louise glanced over to Tabitha who looked ready to begin aging alongside the castle walls.

"Our lesson begins now! Louise, as you might know, many factors influence the power and malleability of a spell." The tutor began in earnest.

Louise looked back to Tabitha once more whom merely gazed back for a brief moment. "Are you not going to answer my question?"

Reynald continued while simultaneously shaking his head in the negative, "Accurate enunciation, increased volume of chanting, percent willpower directed, mana channeling efficiency, variety of magical focus used, concentration of the caster: these all effect the strength of and ability to regulate a spell."

Louise knew all this already, "I've read about those concepts a hundred times. Why are you bringing it up?"

Louise felt that five eyes were now staring at her. Reynald's face was an amalgam of shock, disbelief and vexation, and Tabitha was peering over her book at her.

"I'm bringing them up because every time you cast a spell, you shout it to Brimir's ear like a player who can't afford to let a single word be misheard while dumping your maximum willpower into it. How're you supposed to control your spells when your shooting to destroy a moon with brute force alone?"

Louise bit her lips, which imparted a saccharin cherry sensation from her lunch of picking from communal fruit bowls and had the decency to have a realization. "Oh. I don't need to dump my everything into every spell to get them to work now."

"Now that you have made that realization, our training can begin. Today we'll start simple and focus on muttered spell casting. Hopefully by the end of our lesson, you'll be able to make a gust silently and controlled enough to flip a page of Tabitha's book without her stopping you first." Tabitha flicked a thumb to turn another page in her book, showing Louise she wasn't pinning the pages down. Reynald leaned forward conspiratorially and whispered, "It's some trashy fiction based off of Arthurian Legend written by a fan of the mythos. I won't mind if you tear out a few pages on your first few tries. Don't worry about Tabitha retaliating either, it was her idea."

Louise laughed quietly to herself, "You mean the one where Joustalot had all the maidens falling for him because of his 'magnificently magnificent and beautifully beautiful facial features that adorned his face.'?" Reynald only nodded sagely. "Okay, how do I get started?"

"We'll be using the dot gust spell today." Reynald leveled his wand at Tabitha and nearly sighed out, " _Flatus_." A soft breeze caressed its way past Louise's cheek, making a single bold wave bend blades of grass like trees atop a windy mountain. Tabitha let it past her guard and was set a single page back in her story. "Now you try. Remember to maintain the basic phonetics of the spell when you drop the volume. You don't have to pop the T, but you don't want to turn it into a D either."

Louise pulled out her own wand now, eyeing it more as a precision instrument than a boom-stick this time. 'Okay, you've done this one before. Don't tear the field up in the process and we'll call that a good start. Make this a spell the Heavy Wind would approve of.' She lifted her wand to the sky, and a pit suddenly formed in Reynald's stomach. She snapped her arm back down and bellowed under her breath, " _Flatus_!"

A surge of wind flattened the grass beneath it as it charged as an enraged breeze towards its target. Predictably, Tabitha grabbed onto her staff with one hand and silently split the surge in two, never having to look up. Her book was left effectively collecting dust.

"So, we're going to have to have a bit of a talk on what qualifies as quiet and shouting in terms of spell casting..."

* * *

An hour later Louise had mastered the art of whispering her spells both physically and mentally. The result was gusts that were gentle, controlled, and within an order of magnitude from each other in strength. Despite this, Tabitha had not been prevented from reading her book once. This almost bothered Louise as much as it did Reynald.

"She's mocking us now. Did you see that? She only touched her staff with her pinky last time. Her pinky!" Tabitha was smiling wide enough that she was half way to forming dimples. "That's it. I'm going to show you how it's done Louise."

Louise crossed her arms, "I haven't been able to all day, what makes you think you can do it? If you haven't noticed, I picked this up in no time at all."

Reynald cracked his knuckles, "Watch, I'll even do it with one eye closed." Louise noted that he couldn't use one eye anyway. Reynald looked over to Louise, his wand resting against his thigh. "The trick is subtlety." Slowly, he raised his wand towards Tabitha, hand never leaving his side in the process. Then, without a breath he mouthed the incantation and only then posed as if about to start his spell.

The initial wind was slow but gained speed as Louise saw multiple ripples in the grass growing closer as they prepared to congeal. Tabitha was unaware the spell had already been cast and only twitched in anticipation of it. Unfortunately for Louise's tutor, having only one eye to aim with can shift the horizontal perception of objects, and Reynald missed his target.

When the compiled wind arrived at Tabitha it went wide of her book and instead launched her staff clear across the courtyard. Tabitha was pushed back into her seat and her glasses skewed as she watched her staff ground itself and bow out before bouncing and falling once more like a dead branch.

Tabitha closed her book with a snap, readjusted her glasses, and erected herself. All eyes watched as she crushed green matter underfoot on her way to her staff. As Tabitha reached down for her staff, Reynald was startled by a talking sword.

"Hey cotton for brains, you'd best start running now."

"What? Have you been able to talk this whole time? And what do you mean by run?"

In the near distance, Tabitha planted her staff, now in hand, with a building wind circling her. She stretched out her other arm and raised one finger. Dust and leaves started to cycle close to the ground as the sun reflected off her glasses nearly blinding Louise. 'Why do glasses people do that so much.'

Reynald smacked his lips once and took in a deep breath, "Lessons over for today Louise. Don't forget to practice on your own. We'll meet up again tomorrow, but I have about fifty seconds." His tempo kept rising as he slowly marched away until he got to the courtyard's entrance and bolted.

Louise turned to face Tabitha who'd turned off her wind display and was now stepping towards the archway herself. As she passed, she muttered, "Eye for an eye." and set off jogging.

Derflingr spoke again, "He'll be fine, kid's over-imagining what your friend considers equitable payback." Derflingr shifted in his sheath. "As long as he doesn't insult her choice of reading that is."

Louise shook her head before heading back to her room. "As long as that doesn't escalate into me losing my panties or some other inane nonsense that plagued me last week, I honestly don't care. All I want to do know is plan out my apology to Siesta. Though, that practice was enjoyable."

* * *

\- The next morning. -

"So, I'm sorry that you had to see me like that. I should have been more mindful of myself and respected the fact that you were present. I shouldn't have assumed you wouldn't see anything that I didn't want you to see, and most importantly, I shouldn't have asked you to clear my name when I first tried to apologize to you. If you could find it in your generosity, could you please forgive me for my poor choice of behavior and let me prove myself a dignified noble in your eyes."

Louise was bowed before Siesta as deeply as her noble upbringing would let her, golden rays from the rising sun strategically accentuating her from behind. Derflingr had insisted that would help for some reason. Louise held her breath as she beheld Siesta wringing her hands.

"Oh, Miss Valliere, you're forgiven, but I must inform you that I will not be taking back what I reported about our incident. I feel it's only right you learn from this by living the consequences. I hope you understand."

That was not the response Louise was hoping for. She cringed as she followed her sword's advice and accepted the apology as it was. Standing straight again she locked her gaze with Siesta's. "Thank you, I'm just _overjoyed_ that we're making up like this. Is there anything else about this you'd like to get off your chest? If possible, I'd like us to **never speak of this again**."

To her surprise, Louise was enveloped into a hug by Siesta. 'Hold on. Isn't the issue that I was being too 'affectionate' towards Siesta in the first place?' Despite these thoughts, Louise returned the hug in force, doing her best to ignore the fact that Siesta's breasts were pressing into her head. 'Seriously! After everything that happened, this is okay apparently?'

Releasing the hug Siesta continued the conversation, "I'm glad you're trying to reclaim your dignified persona Louise, but may I ask if I could help with that?"

Louise made a flustered and confused noise in return.

"Most people face punishments in this world when they make mistakes, this makes them more accountable. I believe that if you felt you might be punished for doing something that was not becoming of yourself, that you might keep closer to your amazing image of what a noble should be. You see, this last week before that incident, you showed me you were a noble cut from a nicer cloth than the rest. With your approval, would you let me hold you to your standards?"

Louise enjoyed the idea of being a better noble than the other nobles. Plus, having Siesta around to help 'guide' her back down the path of righteousness would help them smooth over their misunderstanding. It wasn't surprising that Louise agreed. "That's an excellent idea Siesta. I'd love to have you keeping me as straight as an arrow. A noble's duty is to protect, the commoner's to serve, but accountability only strengthens our bonds."

Louise looked back to the rising sun, "I'm glad we can pave over this rough patch together. You were a friend when I needed one the most. I'd hate for us to fall out."

Siesta nodded her agreement, "I'll go cook something sweet for us to celebrate your reformation. You'd best go train swords with the boys; they're already assembling for the morning."

So, the two parted with both happy to be reconciling, and Louise simultaneously bittersweet that Siesta still believed her to have done something she hadn't.

* * *

After three hours of running, climbing, jumping, hiding, dodging, and firing off counter spells, Reynald slumped into a tree, temporarily out of Tabitha's sight and tired to the bone. 'She's still chasing me! Whatever she has planned for me must be sadistic if she's being this persistent.'

High above, Sylphid passed over head but continued past his position. 'I have at least another five minutes until she figures out that I stopped here.'

Reynald rubbed his one uncovered eye and held it closed for a moment. The fifth adrenaline rush he had had was finally crashing and he was trying to let his heart slow down and rest for a moment.

Reopening his eye, he saw blue, Gallian Blue. 'So much for letting my heart rest.'

Before he could move, Tabitha incanted, " _Flatus_." A powerful gust of wind slammed Reynald into the tree he was previously resting on and dislodged his wand in the process.

Slowly, Tabitha approached the disarmed Vice-Captain, grabbed his wand and descended on him. Just as he could feel her breath on him, she poked him in the head with his wand, "Even."

She then returned his wand to him before backing out of his arm's reach. "Hold on. Was that it?" Reynald heaved out.

"More?"

"No thanks."

"Good. Tired." Tabitha fell limply into the grass beneath the tree, taking long, deep breaths. "Carry me back?"

"We're even, remember? Besides, I wasn't riding a dragon half the time. I can't move." Reynald slumped cheek first into the dirt closing his eye.

"Quarter at most."

"Sure, whatever you say."

Neither mage made it back to the academy before nightfall.


	20. Chapter 20

**Once again I'm late, but on the bright side this chapter runs longer than normal. Additionally, updates will be on Tuesday's starting the next update, and the next chapter is the omake that the contest winner requested. (If you want to tell everyone what it's about early leave a review.)**

 **This chapter delves a touch deeper into the M rating given to this fic, you have been warned. There are some mild things of a nonconsensual, sexual nature that those reading this fic may not have expected having read this far. Granted most of you will think it's weak sauce once you get through it. (I don't know if it's excessive or intentionally lacking for what it is honestly, I'm trying to write topics outside my self-conceived fortes believe it or not.)**

 **Criticism will be gleaned for useful feedback, all else is still appreciated. Enjoy.**

Chapter 20: Henrietta Arrives

It was now late in the evening of that week's Friday, Louise had finished all of her training and classes for the day and was reevaluating the events that followed her summoning.

'So, I didn't really get a familiar, but instead I have a magic finding rune and more importantly control over my magic. The whole point of my summoning was to prove that I could perform a spell, so in the end I technically got what I wished for most. Even if I have to cover up so many runes marring my body now, it would be foolish to think this isn't an improvement.'

'Still, that damn dragon cheated me. I requested he be my familiar and he gives me a rune instead. How does that work? Once I get a chance I really need to track down where he ran off to. What am I going to do about the familiar presentations tomorrow anyway? I can't exactly show off my rune to everyone, it would be an affront to the church! A noble having a familiar rune branded to them!'

'Thinking of blasphemous things that I've been doing, I'm apparently supposed to be a Void Mage of all things? Yet if what I've been told is true, that's not actually impossible and people like Henrietta and possibly the church know that and intentionally keep it under wraps. Why?'

Louise glanced over to Derflingr who was leaned against the window frame looking at the moon, or at least that's what she thought he was looking at. Being a sword, he didn't have any eyes to follow, and he'd been quietly humming an ancient tune to himself when he thought Louise wouldn't hear it.

'I've made a lot of friends recently too. In no small part due to my sudden control over my magic.' She grinned to herself. 'First Siesta, then Derflingr, then Tabitha, Reynald, Montmorency, and Guiche, and Kirche isn't constantly a bother anymore. I'll need to get someone other than Tabitha to go with me and Kirche to that salon she offered. Having to talk to Zerbst the whole way there and back would be a disaster. I still can't wait to get the burned patches out of my hair.'

'No one's called me Zero or mocked me for half a significant amount of time, but the girls have been keeping there distance even more now, and I bet the boys would be too if I didn't do sword practice with them. Fortunately, it seems Osmond kept the nonsense involving Siesta under wraps and she had a talk with whoever was cooking my food. For now, I'm safe from people assuming I'm a bigger pervert than Kirche. But I'll need to fix that fast. I can't miss bathing days much more without people asking questions.'

'Best news is that my bad luck streak seems to have died just as mysteriously as it came.' Something caught Louise's eye.

Down in the courtyard, sticking to the shadows was Guiche and Montmorency carrying a cauldron full of potions followed by Guiche's giant mole, Verdandi. 'What in Halkeginia are they doing?' The couple snuck out through the main gate and out of sight. 'I've got more important things to do than worry about them doing stupid couple's courtship rituals or whatever.'

Louise quietly shut her window and locked the door. She activated her rune and magnified the dots as much as possible. "Princess Henrietta is supposed to arrive tonight, and if the closest dot keeps up its current pace, it'll be here before tomorrow. I'm going to go ahead and say we can confirm that the dot represents Henrietta."

Derflingr acknowledged her, "That very well could be the case. We can see the dot moving now it's so close. However, have you considered the dot could be someone or something with Henrietta?"

Louise tutted back at Derflingr, "Don't be ridiculous, what could be more important than Henrietta? It must be her."

"Okay, I guess we'll find out soon enough. 'The Dot' will be here in less than half an hour."

* * *

Sure enough, it wasn't long before the princess' carriage arrived surrounded by her musketeers. It finally dawned on Louise that her only friend that she had for more than a week would be here. They would definitely be catching up.

"Woah there, partner! Ride's gettin' a bit rough up 'ere. Calm down." Louise admonished herself for bouncing around like a child waiting for candy and immediately stopped.

"I'm sorry. I got a bit over enthused for a moment. I can't wait to meet her again after so, so long." Louise ran a hand through her hair and felt one of the charred spots on the surface. 'I can fix that in time.'

Derflingr interrupted her as she reached for a brush, "Quick question. Are you planning on meeting the Crown Princess of Tristain in your pajamas? Seems a bit informal for meeting a future queen."

Etiquette fueled horror pumped into Louise as though injected from a thousand needles. "I need to change now!" Cotton danced as though electrified as Louise tore through her dressers for a uniform or an ensemble. She hurled her night gown and then her underwear at Derflingr, blinding silk and cotton burying him.

"Hold on! Don't just start panicking, Louise! You already stripped off too much without thinking about it. What difference is your choice of underwear going to make after all?"

Louise stared downwards to see she had indeed stripped naked in her haste. "I'll concede that was a bit unnecessary, but Henrietta could be here any moment!" Louise turned back to start putting on an overcoat she had grabbed.

"You have a lock on your door, remember? You just locked it a moment ago, but you're first instinct should've been to make sure it's locked. After everything that you told me happened to you recently, you'd think caution would be one of your best virtues. Your friend probably won't be here for another half hour at the least, and even so, she's not going to bust the door down. Now, start over from the top, I bet you've already screwed something up."

Louise stopped trying to pull a sock over her shoe as she noticed she had a skirt worn over her cloak and her bra on upside down somehow. 'Maybe I have been going a touch too fast.'

Louise stood up, dropped everything and carefully started grabbing each article she needed to be presentable. Muttering to herself she said, "You know, you're a life saver Derflingr. At the rate I was going, Henrietta would've probably found me half naked in a pile of mismatched clothes." She cycled through a deep breath. "I've got plenty of time. Plenty of time." Saying that, Louise pulled out a foldable screen to get dressed properly behind. It doesn't hurt to be extra safe.

"When you're done back there, can you take your panties off my hilt? No offense, but they don't remind me of fields of wild flowers. More like a field of pu-"

A flying brush knocked Derflingr down and free of the discarded laundry.

"Thank you."

* * *

-Five Minutes Later-

Louise had just brushed the last burned patch of her hair out of sight when a knock came at her door. "As captain of her Majesties' personal guard, I demand you open this door immediately for an inspection."

Louise turned to Derflingr accusingly and hissed, "Half an hour at least, huh?" Derflingr only remained silent. "I'll be there momentarily!" Louise quickly shoved her companion under her bed, "Stay put."

Unlocking her door revealed a tall, blonde musketeer to Louise. An authoritarian aura radiated into the room as the Captain of the Royal Musketeers, Agnès, strode forward into the room. "I now need you to hand over any weapons, magical or mundane, you have on your person, as well as any potion, or magical focus. Then you will inform me of any such objects in this room so that I may remove them. The Princess wishes to see you, and the room must be secured before I will let any meeting occur."

Louise nodded her head before affirming, "I will do as you say so that Henrietta may come in." She drew her wand out by the tip and handed it to Agnès who seemed unpleased by the action. She wanted Derflingr to see her with Henrietta so she didn't acknowledge his presence. "I hope Henrietta can come in now, that should be the only thing."

Leather boots marched to Louise's bed before lifting up the side of the furniture to reveal Derflingr. Louise's heart imploded. "I pray you merely forgot about your sword because you're the variety of Lady who rarely uses it."

"Y-Yes, I haven't touched the thing in ages." She just needed to play innocent, Louise had a feeling this woman would not mind putting her head on a pike if it meant eliminating a possible threat to Henrietta. "I'm very sorry for forgetting. You can continue to search if you believe I have any other weapons in my room, which I assure you there are none." Louise wasn't sweating yet, but she was on edge.

Agnès noted that the sword had no dust on it as she opened a drawer to reveal ropes, cuffs, a chain and collar, a riding crop, and a whip. While the sword was a stretch to believe was an accident, she could pass off these items as intended for a mage's familiar, and not thought of as possible weapons. "I'm afraid I'll need to remove all of these items as well, though I doubt you consider these viable weapons I'll let these slide too, but only because the Princess has shown faith in you."

Louise relaxed slightly at the marginally more agreeable tone the Captain had used with her. 'Looks like she's willing to take it easy on me for my blunder.'

Agnès turned to Louise with a sigh, "Now turn your back to me and place your hands against the wall. I have reason to search your person after all I've seen here so far."

"What?!"

"I'll repeat myself. Turn your back-"

"I heard what you said! How can you ask that of someone of my station? What you're suggesting is preposterous!" Louise pointed accusingly at the captain. How dare she, honestly?

Agnès took notice of the convenient equipment in her hands and decided to snap some of the rope taught in her hands. "You will comply either by volition or force, the Princess has ordered a meeting with you which you cannot decline. I have been lenient so far, but you will be punished if you resist. I will remind you now that I'm the Captain of Henrietta's personal guard, and that no one lesser than royalty may object to my authority in all matters pertaining to her protection. Now, hands on the wall."

Louise swallowed her pride, quite a sizable thing to get down her throat but it had shrunken recently, and placed her hands on the wall, pressing her body against it as well. "The moment Henrietta gets here, I'll be telling her everything. So, don't pull anything funny."

Agnès chuckled heartily, "Don't worry, I wouldn't have it any other way. Now stick out your rear and spread those legs, you're much too close to the wall." Louise closed her eyes as she complied. Oh, the indignity of it all.

The captain quickly patted her arms and legs first, then proceeded to work her way down her torso. Louise resisted none of the urges to squirm as this happened, blood running up to her face. Then Agnès announced she would be finishing by probing for any wands in her cavities. Before Louise could react, the captain attempted to ram her fingers into her holes, and just as quickly abandoned the effort at the resistance she received. Through pure accident Louise had also received a flick to a bundle of nerve endings in the area and was now flustered senseless.

Not a moment later Derflingr was screeching at Agnès. "What was that last bit all about! You can't treat her like that, have you no shame! I'll cut ya if you think you can get away with that!"

Agnès suppressed her urge to startle and focused on the second sword on her hip that had just quintupled in weight. "You can talk?"

"Yeah! And I can see too ya pervert."

Agnès unhooked Derflingr and he fell to the floor like lead. "Calm yourself, I was just doing my job. That last step is necessary, and I keep it as brief as possible, which in your owner's case was the minimum as she's clearly a virgin."

Derflingr grumbled in return realizing he didn't have much power here, "Okay, but you keep away from her for now." To this Agnès obliged.

Louise lay curled up next to the wall, one hand over her heart and one hand guarding down below. 'Oh Brimir, why did she have to go and do that? My heart won't stop beating and somehow I don't quite get why?'

After a moment, Louise finished taking a series of deep breaths before standing up. She channeled her mother's steel and fired off a glare at the captain, "I will tell Henrietta about this, and then you'll suffer for what you just did."

The captain was unfazed, "You'll find I acted within my bounds. I'll be taking your weapons and summoning the princess now." Agnès picked up Derflingr and grasped the door frame. "By the way, if you want to avoid such treatment in the future, don't hide any weapons from the guards. You'll find that of those who are thorough, there are some out there who could abuse their position, unlike me. I admit it's regrettable I needed to do that, may Brimir forgive these things."

As Louise cooled off Agnès stood just outside the door until Henrietta arrived.

Unaware of what just occurred, Henrietta glomped onto Louise upon laying eyes on her. "Louise Françoise! It's been too long. I'm glad to see your face again."

The sudden hug did not help Louise's inadvertently activated hormones, and found she had to carefully pry Henrietta off her to reduce the human contact. "I'm positively ecstatic to see you again too. However, I must inform you that your captain just tried to violate me." Louise bit back a shout as she glared at Agnès, whom was ignoring her and stared forward at the ready.

Henrietta immediately saw how flushed Louise's face was and the deliberate lack of eye contact from her guard. "Oh no, Agnès! I thought I told you to be easy on Louise. She's my oldest friend. Surely you shouldn't have had to resort to, to that!"

Agnès grimaced and bowed to Henrietta. "My apologies, but your friend failed to inform me of several weapons in the room, one of which was a high caliber magic sword. I couldn't leave any crevice unchecked."

Henrietta frowned for a moment. "Alright, you've succeeded in fouling tonight's mood, but you were only doing your job. We'll discuss how you can repay Louise for this overstep later." Agnès nodded her understanding. "Leave her wand here, Louise just got her first spells to work a week ago or so and I want to see them. Also, don't insult me by implying Louise could harm me, I'm a capable triangle mage. You can focus on general security for the rest of the night and leave another guard here in your place."

Despite wishing to object, Agnès accepted her orders with a full bow. "Yes, your Highness. Enjoy your evening." With that, she left leaving Louise's wand behind.

"So, Françoise, show me what a top of the line mage can do after having magic for only a week."

If there was one thing that could distract Louise from a traumatizing encounter, it was showing off her magic.

* * *

No less than 259 spells from Louise later, she was having the time of her life and feeling the limits of her willpower for the first time. Practical lessons and tutoring sessions had already been intense that day.

Henrietta spoke up, "That was amazing, you're like a bottomless pit of willpower! However, I've got more to talk to you about tonight." Louise perked up from her sprawled position on her bed. "I recently acquired what must be an ancient relic dating back before Brimir. Agnès it on one of her patrols and we've come to store it in the academies' vault."

Reaching into her cleavage, she pulled out an orange orb. This initially relieved Louise who had been feeling intimidated by Henrietta's previous apparent size. 'Hold it! You recognize that thing!'

In Henrietta's hand was the four-star dragonball.

Upon seeing it Louise instantly felt her rune act up a little in its presence. Suddenly several misunderstandings cleared up in Louise's mind, 'That's one of the orbs my familiar came from! My rune must be tracking those orbs. That means my familiar gave me the rune so I could find these! They must be important for some reason. Maybe I need all of them to get his attention like some sort of beacon? Also, how is Henrietta touching it without it exploding in her face?'

Henrietta took Louise's silence as admiration of the dragonball's beauty as a gem. "Impressive, I know, but it's more than just a pretty stone." Henrietta then pulled out a dagger and a thick rope which she magically held taught in midair. She set down the dragonball and attempted to cut the rope and failed. "Without the star orb, I can't cut this rope," she then grabbed the dragonball, "but with it I can slice it cleanly as only a master could." True to her word, with dragonball in hand she sliced the rope into two perfect parts, not a single fiber fell off in the process.

Though Henrietta had yet to recognize it, Louise instantly saw Gandalfr's power at work through the dragonball. "That's amazing, are you here to give it to me?"

"Oh no. Like I said earlier, it's being put in the vault to be saved for wartime or crises. I just wanted to show you how amazing it is." Henrietta then returned the orb to her cleavage. "We haven't even talked about the most important thing- huh?" The princess had to grab Louise's wrist before the hand got to her breasts. "I know it's an amazing artifact Louise, but you should just ask if you wanted to try it."

Louise shook off her trance, "No, I'm sorry, I shouldn't be so greedy to try to grab it from your person. Let's get to the next thing you wanted to talk about." Louise shrunk in on herself for her lapse in judgement. 'It's not going anywhere, you can get it later. Focus on your friend for now.'

"As I was saying, I'm pretty confident before your summoning you were a void mage. Impossible, right? You'd be wrong, a handful of times in history each of Brimir's four lines produce a void mage. Someone with Brimir's elemental affinity, but only that. Osmond should have already explained that to you, though. Next time we meet, we're going to verify that by giving you the Founder's Spellbook. If you are a void mage like we expect it'll teach you your first void spells and make you a great boon to Tristain."

Louise sighed, "I still can't wrap my mind around this void mage thing. Isn't this blasphemy? What would the papacy say?"

Henrietta snickered to herself, "Oh Louise, the Pope would understand." Louise quirked an eyebrow at that. "After all, he's almost definitely one himself."

If her mind was a book, somebody had just torn a page out of Louise's. "Ja-tu-pu-fa-what?"

* * *

Earlier, in Montmorency's room.

"Guiche! We've got bad news."

"What is it Montmorency?"

"The Princess is coming for the familiar festival!"

"I don't see why that's bad? Isn't that something to celebrate?"

"Not when the Royal Musketeers are going to be inspecting every room in the castle."

"Wait, but your potions... the ingredients... that special glassware..."

"Exactly, we need to get everything in my room buried before nightfall, as far from the academy as possible, or else we'll be living like peasants the rest of our lives!"

"I'll get Verdandi!"

 **Will Montmorency's illegal potions operation get discovered? Find out next time on ZSDB.**


	21. Omake 1

**Welcome to Tuesday updates, I'll be sticking to tuesday updates for the foreseeable future. This 'chapter' is for the winner of that contest from way back, they requested I detail just how Henrietta got her hands on the dragonball. I know some of you also wanted to see that, so enjoy!**

 **Also, Omakes are supposed to be a few sentences _after_ the chapter? Balderdash! I'll make it as long as I want.**

Omake 1: The Four Star Dragonball

The sky lightened as the Four Star Dragonball raced along it's suborbital trajectory. As it descended it screeched louder and angrier until it dropped below the speed of sound. Whistling quietly along now, the orange blur quickly went over communities of various size. Over hamlets, villages, towns, and lonely cabins and manors the ball was easily missed by most and disregarded as a trick of the imagination by many others, as it arced ever closer and faster to the earth below. Steadily losing its forward momentum the magic orb fell short of the largest city it had approached yet and cratered itself into a freshly plowed field.

The crater itself was small, no larger than a bowl, but was deep enough to hide the dragonball from a distance yet remain difficult to notice itself. Felix, a farmer whose land hugged the capitol, didn't notice it until the sun was already sagging and he was nearly finished with planting his seed for the day. "What's this now?"

Kneeling down Felix beheld the finest crystal he would ever have the pleasure of seeing in his lifetime. Carefully, he rolled the orb into his hands as though handling a close friend's baby. He laughed out loud, "What are you doing falling out of the sky into my field? I just plowed the thing and here you are trying to make a mess of it?" He wiped a smudge of dirt from the orb as he continued, "Don't worry, you didn't do anything particularly terrible, just smeared one of my lines a little. Now who do you belong to?"

Felix paused for a moment as though to listen, "No one? Oh, I doubt that, but I'll take you anyway seeing as you landed in my field." Holding his new possession Felix planted the last few seeds into his plot before sauntering back towards his farmhouse. Life was good for Felix as a farmer working land belonging directly to the Crown, and thus Henrietta. The princess took one of the smallest shares in the kingdom, and his farm nearly neighbored the capitol's marketplace. His peers called him lucky Felix because of this, but his family would still go wanting from time to time.

Now home, he held the magic orb to the setting sun, casting all the warmest colors of the rainbow about his face. Whatever way he held it, at least one of the four stars' edges would reflect white bright sunshine like a mirror. "You must be worth a fortune with how pretty you are… and I doubt you'd be any use on a farm. Tell you what shiny stone, I'll find somebody who can really appreciate your beauty, and sell you to them." He peaked in the door to see his family already setting down for dinner. "If I do that, I might be able to afford to get Gynelle a set of books to read." Felix pocketed the orb for the night, "Yeah, I'll do that."

* * *

Porio Catus considered himself an honest businessman, so when his old friend Felix came into his shop offering to sell a crystalline orb the size of a baseball for a mere two-hundred écu, he had to tell him he was a madman. "You could sell that for a clean thousand at least! I'm glad you came to me first Felix, you could have easily been robbed blind selling that thing that cheap. Do you know what a noble could do with a crystal that pure and large?"

"Make a particularly fancy cane?"

"Well, yes, probably in this case, but that's not the point. Mages can make magical items of great power out of crystals, the bigger the better. The larger ones can store more magic or something. The royals use the most powerful crystals, do you know how big those are?" Porio leaned over his counter and met Felix eye to eye, his cape dragging some paperwork with it.

Felix looked down at the magic orb he held in his hands, then held it up to Porio, "About this big." Porio turned around and slammed his head into the padded wall behind his counter. "Hey, don't go ruining your shop, that ain't doing anyone any good."

Mr. Catus, owner of one of the most successful businesses in the outer districts of the capitol, took off his top hat to make sure he hadn't bent the rim out of shape. "The royals have the largest crystals and gems. Those can fit onto a particularly large ring at their greatest. I'll take it for one and a half thousand, you won't find anyone who'll give a better price to someone that doesn't understand that thing's potential. I should be able to sell it for a bit more than that so don't worry about me. Do we have a deal?"

Felix all but crushed Porio's hand in his as he agreed excitedly, "Oh you know I can't say no to that. After you were so kind to tell me how much this gem's worth after I had no clue, of course I'll accept. I'll be able to get some of the kids into a noble school with that much. You just promise me you'll turn a profit off that beauty."

Porio handed Felix the money with a warm smile and a heavy heart, he almost felt guilty for buying the orb. But not too much, he was the owner of Tristain's greatest swindling shop for a reason. So, it was only natural he would have taken a possible million écu artifact for less than a percent of its possible worth.

* * *

Conniving Catus carefully crept 'cross the most crime-ridden quarter of Tristain, calculating the safest course to the commoner quarter's best crystal shop. Normally, he considered the area too risky to peruse for wares and to use as a market to sell his more niche curios, but the presence of a guardswoman had sent the whole area into low profile for the past few days. Porio had miscalculated, however. Thieves must eat, and thus can't play it safe forever, they taught him this by giving him a club to the gut.

After hearing the plea of a local commoner, Henrietta de Tristain had assigned her Musketeers to patrol the underbelly of her Capitol as the governor's police had deemed the area too risky to enter. Thus Agnès, Captain of the Royal Musketeers, happened upon three thieves attacking a well-to-do man in broad daylight, and remove a ridiculously large jewel from his person. This had been the first crime spotted since the first musketeer patrol went through the area not long ago.

"Cease your actions immediately! Drop your weapons and do not resist!"

The thieves were caught off guard having been too busy arguing over what to do with the gem. Looking up they found a moderately armored and heavily armed woman on horseback leveling a sabre at them. The thieves found the combination of height, heavy iron, and a well-maintained physique only possible from eating regularly was quite intimidating. One of them cursed under his breath about awareness of surroundings in the brief moment each decided how to react.

Two of the robbers bolted further down the street with the dragonball in hand, while the third complied with the captain's orders and dropped his knife to the ground. Not giving it a second thought Agnès pursued the two who fled giving her whistle three sharp blasts. As she rounded the corner in her pursuit of the criminals, the one who initially followed her commands retrieved his knife and ran in the other direction directly into the arms of two waiting musketeers.

Quickly outpacing the thieves, Agnès routed them into a dead-end of an alley. "You're trapped, surrender now or you'll have to face my blade." She dismounted her steed so that she could more effectively block the thin alley. Here the second thief surrendered dropping his club before approaching the captain, who quickly locked him in manacles.

The last one clutched onto the jewel he held in his left hand, and drew a hatchet in his right, "I'm not going to surrender and go down like some pig! I'm Devon the Dagger, short a few daggers, and I'll not give in now, or any other day!"

'Great, another criminal who thinks they're the hero of their story, I've seen this one too many- what?' Agnès was startled by the sudden speed with which the criminal had lunged at her. She managed to parry an opening swing that would have cut through the softer tissue of her neck. What was even more surprising was the shared confusion of the hatchet-wielder. Jumping back to regain some distance she prepared for a follow up attack that never came. 'So, he isn't an expert fighter?' Having regained his composure, the criminal launched a series of strikes all intended to disarm her without wasting a motion between each swing. Agnès did her best to keep him out of range by backpedaling as she refused to engage the swings.

The thief laughed as he glanced at the dragonball, "This must be some sorta magic item! I've never been good wit' a hatchet. Yet here I am taking on the Cap'n o' the Royal Guard with one! At this rate I'll beat you down and have my way – wait!"

 **CRACK**

Agnès' sword flashed out and through the hatchet's handle splintering it into fragments unworthy of being used as toothpicks. The hatchet's head clattered to the ground, the cutting edge separated from its owner. The bandit stood still for a moment as he processed his own sudden disarmament while Agnès waited for him to counterstrike with the remains of his hatchet. The second Devon's hatchet had been destroyed he had felt the magic leave him, and he now knew that he had no chance against the armored and armed guardswoman before him without a weapon. 'When you can't fight, you flight. Goodbye, crystal ball.' In his last effort to escape, Devon the Dagger, who no longer owned any daggers, threw the dragonball in his assailant's face and turned to flee. Unfortunately for Devon, Agnès had dealt with similar scenarios several times before and easily ducked under the projectile and tackled the thief to the ground where she finalized her arrest.

* * *

Later that day, Agnès brought Catus Porio before her majesty Henrietta. There, Mr. Porio sold the dragonball to the Crown for an even 5,000 écu under threat of the Crown requisitioning it for a price it deemed fit. After a few days of experimentation by the Royal Musketeers, the limits of the magic artifact's properties were determined, and Henrietta organized for the artifact to be stored in the Tristain Academy of Magic until such a time as it would be needed.

The thieves were each dealt punishment according to their actions on the day of the crime. The two who did not fight but instead chose to run were both sentenced to five years of servitude to the Capitol, and Devon the Dagger, desperate for a dagger, was dealt the death penalty for assaulting a royal guardswoman.

Catus and Felix, having made a sizable sum in selling and trading the dragonball, lived much easier through the current peace times, and two of Felix's children went on to receive a noble's grade of education with help from Catus, who felt guilty for nearly taking all of the money for himself if it hadn't been for the bandits that day.

All the while, the dragonball emitted its built-up negative energy in record time through a newly established magical link, much to the unwitting misfortune of the person on the other end.


	22. Chapter 21

**Did I say a day? I should've said a week. I'm guessing I just had my first fanfiction related case of writer's block. Anyways, today is just finishing last week's chapter, I just barely finished that. As I'm doing the college, job, etc. juggle, I will be doing updates every second week until this semester is up, or I get a backlog of chapters to justify weekly updates again. (Stop clapping back there, that one reader who wants the story to die but is still reading, this isn't a hiatus.)**

 **I'll never be happy with this chapter, but we'll muddle through, enjoy.**

Chapter 21: Unpleasant Revelations

"The Pope is a Void Mage!?" The pink-haired void mage exclaimed.

"Not so loudly Louise!" Henrietta took a pillow to Louise's face to muffle any further exclamations.

After Louise recomposed herself, Henrietta continued, "I don't know for certain, it's just highly likely. In any case, the Pope knows about the void mages, and now would be an opportune time to tell you more about them."

Louise leaned in, "Ooh, is this going to be a fun story?"

"More of a short lecture on history, but you'll want to hear every bit." Louise tried not to be childish and hid her disappointment. "After Brimir passed on, his element, the Void, split into four parts. These parts were blessed to return in the form of four void mages who would recurrently appear throughout history. The Void Mages each have a familial tie to one of Brimir's sons or his first follower and are born in one of the four holy countries associated with their line. Each country holds a relic of Brimir's meant for the void mages to use. I don't know of the others, but Brimir's prayer book, the book I've been telling you about, is Tristain's. Additionally, each Void Mage is capable of summoning a reincarnation of one of Brimir's four original familiars. That's where things get complicated, Void Mages are supposed to summon human beings to their side."

Louise already knew a good deal about how a Void Mage's summoning should turn out, and how wrong hers had gone in comparison, but it still twisted her guts. 'A human huh? That sounds like an entirely different headache of a summoning.'

Henrietta continued, "Normally, your summoning of a dragon would confirm you weren't a void mage. However, you received a rune on your summoning day that contains the symbol for Gandalfr, one of Brimir's familiars, which confirms you're a Void Mage... Probably."

Louise gripped her gloved hand, "You don't think less of me for that though, right Henrietta?"

The princess leaned forward and deftly enveloped Louise in a hug. "Oh no, no, no! It may be strange, but you are still my friend and still the mage and noble you were before your summoning!"

Louise reran that last bit through her head a few times. 'Did she seriously just say nothing's changed in that regard? I can actually cast spells now! I think that counts for something!' Not wanting to ruin the mood in its entirety, Louise responded, "Sure."

Henrietta broke off the hug to sit back and finish her explanation of void mages. "Anyway, each familiar has their own unique powers. What these are is a debate among the few who have access to the records. Romalia's Void Mage summons Vindalfr, the right hand of god, who can make animals do their bidding. You know Tristain's Familiar, Gandalfr, who had the ability to take down armies with their bare hands, or at least that's my belief, the scholars debate that one the most. Albion's Familiar is Lifdrasir, the heart of god, a source of unlimited free mana for their master, or the tale goes. Finally, Gallia's Familiar's name has been lost to time..."

Louise interrupted, "Hold on, I've read about the familiars. Isn't the last familiar M-mmmhmhmhmmm?" Henrietta held her forefinger to Louise's mouth to stop her from uttering the name.

"As I was saying, Gallia's familiar's name is lost to history, as it was too difficult to both pronounce and write. We will be calling them 'Mind of God' from now on. Their power was the ability to understand all things they touched, or perhaps just magical items. The scholars aren't absolutely sure of her ability either. The point is that you are one of the Void Mages, Louise, and that you should tell me what book you read about the Founder's familiars in."

Louise didn't see how that book was a main point but conceded the title, "It's called _Tales of Brimir, and His Magnificent Premiere Into the World_. Why do you want to know?"

Henrietta let the most serene grin she was capable of adorn her. "Oh, I'll just issue a decree to 'fix' some problems with that particular text once I return to the castle."

Four individuals, all in the middle of reading a book, cringed suddenly. Tabitha clutched her chest to settle her racing heart, Reynald keeled over to assuage his knotting stomach, Siesta felt the urge to grieve, and Jean Colbert snapped his guide to exotic familiar runes shut as a single tear tracked down his face, "Somewhere, it has been decided that a book should be censored. What a terrible thought to have." He shuddered.

A furious knocking came rapping at Louise's door. "Princess Henrietta, I must inform you of something immediately!" Louise could recognize Agnès' voice and reflexively clenched. What was she doing back here?

Henrietta answered the door promptly, intent to keep Agnès and Louise apart as much as possible. At the door Agnès crouched to whisper quickly into Henrietta's ear, hissing and popping of consonants permeating the air.

Louise blinked and Henrietta's eyes suddenly widened as she brought her hand to her lips and steadily began to shake her head more rapidly. "No, that's impossible. Louise would never deign to even think of it. She's always had a purer mind than mine."

Louise, no longer having the pure mind she had less than two weeks prior, was already realizing what Agnès had told her friend just now. 'Brimir, who art apparently my ancestor, please strike me down now so that I might not live through this.'

Henrietta was now facing an actively petrifying Louise. Tears welled up as she asked Louise, "Did you really do it? Did you break that law? Tell me you have shame and didn't do such a thing. Tell me you didn't molest a maid."

'Hold on! Molest? I never even touched her!' Louise was not only shocked but angered that such an accusation had been leveled at her. "I did no such thing, there was merely a misunderstanding between me and my maid. I mostly came to an understanding with her, but she'd already put forth testimony. Nothing happened, yet I'm still being punished by that stupid law tarnishing my reputation!" She stomped about the room as she said this, gesticulating her anger to the world.

Henrietta gasped, "I'm sorry you've been disaffected by a misunderstanding, but you shouldn't have been affected by my law if that were the case. I'll have you know I developed that personally to give all parties fair and just treatment. The system I set in place should be infallible, as only true victims and true witnesses can put forth testimony. I personally wrote it after all, surely someone must have made a mistake in executing the directives and must be punished instead?" Henrietta furrowed her brow and gripped a knuckle between her teeth as she tried to figure what had gone wrong.

Louise turned on her friend, "No one made a mistake Henrietta. The system is just clearly flawed. I can't bathe at the same time as my classmates now, and I can't let any of them be in my room without a professor or guard here among other things. It's only a matter of time before they start whispering mean things about me like they always do. You made the law, and you're the Princess, Henrietta. Why can't you help me and clear my name for me? You trust me when I tell you I didn't do anything untoward, don't you?"

Henrietta bit her tongue to stop herself from sputtering at first, then balled up her fists at her sides. "I can't do that Louise, it wouldn't be right. I can't give you that kind of favoritism as my friend, it wouldn't be fair to the rest of the citizenry. There's no way I'll do that. I have the system in place, surely, we can solve this with it. The law's already done so much good, I can't break it for you, it would be unfair of me to pardon you on your word even if I believe you." Louise could see Henrietta's pleading eyes but couldn't reconcile with her offer.

"I've already tried using your system, but it didn't work. It doesn't even get the people it's meant to. I haven't seen people like Count Mott hurt by any of this, and he deserves to suffer for it more than anyone. As far as I can tell, only innocent people such as myself are being hurt by this." Louise took in a deep breath to prevent herself from exploding at Henrietta.

"What are you implying about Count Mott? That's not important at the moment. I can't help but feel this conversation is getting less and less productive. I don't want us to argue over this anymore. I'll show you how well my system works and clear your record the proper way, just you see Françoise! I'm sorry to leave on such a sour note, but I'm afraid we can't continue until we've resolved this. Besides, we shouldn't be alone together until you've been cleared of your charges. In the meantime, I hope you stay strong for me." Agnès pulled Henrietta from the room as she eyed Louise judgingly, clearly not believing Louise on the matter. "Goodbye for now Louise, I'll be back soon, as soon as all this gets resolved."

Louise waved goodbye, "You know what? I'm not done, so you get back here quick so we can really discuss this! Either way, you better sort this all out, I wouldn't expect any less from a future queen like you!"

As Henrietta left on her quest to prove herself right, Agnès returned Louise's possessions which included Derflingr. As the door was shut on them and the guards escorted Henrietta down the hallway, Derflingr yawned, "You're in for a ride now, eh? If Miss Tristain really tries to do what it looks like she's going to try and do, then the whole school will be running with rumors about you. So, do you want to get your dragon's fancy ball and run for it? Seems like a good idea right about now. I wouldn't blame you with what might come of this."

Louise bit her lip lightly, "Getting that stupid dragonball would be good. However, I've decided it'd be cowardly to leave now. A Valliere is supposed to have a will of steel. It's my fault for dragging my feet in resolving all this nonsense, so I'll stay and take whatever's coming my way."

"That's grand and all, but maybe we should try doing something about this ourselves instead of just sitting here and waiting for whatever's cooking to slam into us full force." Derflingr slowed down a touch, "Maybe you could noble up and show Siesta what you learned about your rune. Hell, once you do that, I'll do the rest of the talking for ya if it means wrapping things up in a timely manner."

Louise worried her lip and held her breath for a moment. "Well it's not that easy. How could you comprehend what's it like having a rune on you? Not only have I been branded in a way only a familiar would be, now I must show someone that it's not all just for show either? It's mortifying. To be a novel and have to show someone that not only have you been branded someone else's property, but to show them that there is actual magic behind it? I couldn't do that. I just couldn't." She sat down and hugged Derflingr closer to her.

"You had no problem showing me. And for the record, every person who's ever wielded me has had a rune in the exact same place as yours. They all dealt with the presumptions people of their times would make, and they wore their runes proudly anyway. I get that your situation is somewhat different, but you're killing yourself just over the thoughts of what could happen. How are you going to get anything done if you let yourself hold yourself back? You can trust Siesta, and once you show her you do, it'll be easy for her to trust you again too."

Louise got up once more, slowly and gripping onto Derflingr with force. "Fine, I'll do it. However, you've got to have my back and help me out."

"Whatever you want partner! Let's do something then!"


End file.
